Yeah. Because at the end of the day, Sholay was a formula film. It was not a genre film, like say The Magnificent Seven. This had song, emotion, dance, romance, and so it was a thali -- like the formula films of the 1970s. Aag is more a homage to -- while being a contemporary version of -- that kind of cinema.

So it keeps oscillating between being real and unreal but the whole purpose and intention is not to tell you a story that will keep you emotionally involved but to create a gallery effect.

See, for me, primarily Sholay never worked on a story level. The story's basic line is of a man taking revenge on another man who killed his family and cut his hands off -- such a gruesome thing! The story demands you hate to the villain, but we all came out loving Gabbar, which means the story failed on the premise level itself.

But what it did was create an extraordinary array of moments where you felt high. When Gabbar was cutting Sanjeev Kumar's hands, we were enjoying the performance of Gabbar, not feeling sorry for the character of Thakur.

So my attempt was to create cinematic moments; the story is being used like a medium to create the moments, rather than actually telling the story. Because you know the story; the story has been remade 15 times or more. Probably, China Gate is closer to Sholay than Aag is.

Also read: RGV Ki Aag's music disappoints

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