His films 'Haasil' and 'Sahib Biwi aur Gangster' told stories of small-town love. Filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia, an Allahabad boy himself, tells TOI-Crest that without any frisson, love in a metro pales.

Would you say the romantic notion of love - defiance, stealth, passion, heartache - is now to be experienced only in small-town India?

I agree. I believe that all constant and virtual connectedness of city dwellers is killing unpredictability and making us emotionally complacent. But slowly this phenomenon is going to creep into the smaller cities as well because they are working hard to catch up with the cities and their gadgets of constant communication which, in some ways, actually lead to more alienation. The virtual world will kill reality and the emotions we associate with romantic love - defiance, passion and heartache - which are anyway the real motivators of any personality will be functions of a button.