After a box-office disaster like Holiday, you can’t afford to be on holiday, says Pooja Bhatt (picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha), looking revolted at the suggestion. “There are envelopes to be pushed for all the financiers who have lost money. It’s not in my DNA to look away.”

Post-mortem for her directorial debacle over, Pooja Bhatt turns to what brought her to Calcutta — picking wild-card entrants to the Idea Zee Cinestars talent hunt. Pooja is one of the judges for the show.

“I see in these youngsters the same fear and covering up of fear as there was in me when I started. But they should not expect us (the judges) to be mild to them. If Anupam (Kher) and my father (Mahesh Bhatt) were not so ruthless, pushing me to corners during the making of Daddy, I would not be what I am today — the only woman producer-director in the country except Aparna Sen.”

When Pooja took to direction with Paap, it was Daddy Bhatt who made the stakes clear. “‘No one in the business is interested in seeing you succeed’, he wrote to me.”

Today, Pooja’s brother Rahul is waiting to debut (in Anurag Basu’s Suicide Bomber). “I have told him that whether he succeeds or fails, he has to have the strength to go through the experience.”

That is something Pooja has never lacked. “Manisha (Koirala) and I were the first actresses to be open about our lives and say ‘Look, this is what we are; sorry if you can’t handle it.’ That is why Preity (Zinta) can live on her own terms today and is not asked personal questions about her boyfriend.”

This openness marked her professional life too. “Who would start with a Tamanna? I have never believed in playing safe and not being true to my ideas.”

Today, Pooja is preparing for another honest film — Dhokha — with a new actor. “He is a model from Kashmir called Muzammil Ibrahim. He will be bigger and brighter than John Abraham (who was also introduced by the Bhatts).”

John, Pooja says, is Muzammil’s favourite star and Jism his favourite film. “It is not easy for a good-looking male model to weep on screen. John did it. Muzammil is also willing to surrender himself.”

Dhokha, on Hindu-Muslim friction, took seven years to script. “If my father has written something of value after Zakhm, it is this,” she says of the film set to release “after the World Cup madness”.

Dhokha will be shot in Mumbai. “It is not the easiest place to shoot in but I have a budget to consider. And Rituparno Ghosh has proved that a Rs 1.5 crore film can look rich, right?” she smiles.