India, March 20 -- For filmmaker Mohit Suri, the success of Saiyaara (2025) has brought a powerful realisation, that trusting instinct matters more than chasing industry formulas. He has been a part of showbiz for more than two decades now. The director says Saiyaara's journey felt liberating from the very beginning. "I remember the last day of the shoot. My producer (Aditya Chopra) asked me how I was feeling, and I said, 'I feel liberated,'" he recalls. Suri explains that after the success of films like Aashiqui 2 (2013) and Ek Villain (2014), he found himself increasingly chasing box-office numbers, and that pursuit slowly pushed him toward what he now calls formula filmmaking. "I tried everything possible," he admits. "I put action, I put two heroes, I tried a remix song, things I had never done before. I tried all the so-called tricks of the trade." Yet the result, he says, didn't quite work the way he expected, referencing his film Ek Villain Returns (2022), which didn't perform well at the box office. Saiyaara, however, marked a reset. Without the pressure of big stars or a franchise, the project gave the director creative freedom. "There was no sequel, there were no stars, there was no number to live up to," Suri says, adding, "It was made on a small budget, so I just went and made a film which I thought was a good film." The result surprised even him. "Everything came, the opening, the success. So the learning from this is: just chase excellence, success will come by itself."...