Rituparno Ghosh must be the most harassed filmmaker in the country. “You can say that again,” he concurs with a sigh. “I’m neck-deep in my films. My Antarmahal with Abhishek and Soha is all set for release. I have begun shooting my new Bengali film, Dosar, with Prosenjit and Konkona Sensharma. “The last thing I can afford is to hear crank callers pretending to be me and calling up various stars. Someone impersonating me kept calling Arjun Rampal. I had the cops trace the calls to the outskirts of Calcutta and a man was arrested. Now I believe John Abraham has been getting similar calls. John believed it was me until Bipasha heard the man’s voice. Please! I don’t have to call up stars to get their attention.”

Ritu’s biggest problem right now is a new adaptation of Bimal Mitra’s Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, which he is committed to do for Pritish Nandy Communications. With Priyanka Chopra being finalised to play the pivotal part of Chhoti Maalkin, Ritu is very keen to have Kareena Kapoor play the other female lead. “I’d love to have Bebo play Jaba. In Guru Dutt’s Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, Meena Kumari and Waheeda Rehman represented the two faces of womanhood so beautifully. To me they are equally important characters in the drama, just like Paro and Chandramukhi in Devdas. I could work the same magic with Priyanka and Kareena. But will Kareena work with Priyanka after Aitraaz?”

As for the two male leads, the producers are keen on Vivek Oberoi and Salman Khan to do them. Ritu has no issues with his producer’s decision.

Though Ritu’s Antarmahal is in Bengali, it has an interesting and national-level cast of Amitabh Bachchan’s son and Sharmila Tagore’s daughter.

“And both Abhishek and Jackie Shroff are dressed only in a skimpy dhoti throughout! Whenever Abhishek came on the sets he would grumble good-naturedly that I had turned him into a pinup boy.

“I don’t think Abhishek has ever looked so intense and acted so quietly in any of his films. It has a nationwide market. How it’s released depends entirely on the film’s right-holders, AB Corp Ltd and Vashu Bhagnani.”