Rajkumar Hirani, the maker of Munna Bhai, 3 Idiots and PK, has moved into a spanking new office in a sprawling corporate park that's quite the coveted business address in Andheri East today. It is manned by a young, peppy staff and the minimalistic décor too is very contemporary - for example, there's a cool niche in the wall where you'll come across one of Raju's assistants lounging and scrutinising a script.

The entrance to his office is typical of Hirani's humour with a single piece embellishment that doffs its hat to the famous PK poster. The welcome area has a glass cupboard neatly divided into two and lit up. In one part is a pair of white chaddis, yes, male underwear, the other has a transistor/ radio. That's it.

"Have you read what it says?" Raju grinned and pointed to what was written above the two compartments. It reads, "There are two kinds of people in this world" - those who wear this (a chaddi ) and those who wear that (a transistor).

So his brand of cinema, making a statement that makes you chuckle, begins right at the reception.

Chaddis seem to be the flavour of the season for one had barely seen the pair in Raju's office when Salman Khan flaunted the briefest of them in the first promo of Sultan, the film based on Indian wrestler Sultan Ali Khan. Salman doing almost a Full Monty except for that tiny garment around his groin, has his fans in a swoon, even if much of the effects have been Photoshopped. His striding out into the arena with the camera on his legs powerfully stomping the ground, registered more than 3 million hits on the very first day. The numbers have, of course, only been rising since then.

So, "briefly" speaking, between Aamir Khan's transistor in PK and Salman's chaddis in Sultan , objectifying the hero's body has become official. Therefore, a pair of underwear greeting you at Raju Hirani's office is completely in keeping with what's in trend today.

A regular at Hirani's office is his writing partner, Abhijat Joshi, who has co-written Lage Raho Munna Bhai , 3 Idiots and PK . Life is so unpredictable. The Ohio-based English professor, who has more or less permanently shifted to Mumbai, was hale and hearty one day. Next week he was in an ICU getting a tumour out of his head.

"But don't stress. Abhijat is doing well," read Raju's text message.

Abhijat and Raju have also collaborated on the writing of the Sanjay Dutt biopic which stars Ranbir Kapoor as the colourful and controversial son of Sunil and Nargis Dutt. One wonders if the film will show to what extent star craze exists in this country. Despite serving time for an offence that originated with the 1993 bomb blasts, Sanju came out like a war hero. A friend, who'd gone to Yeravada to accompany Sanju back to Mumbai, whispers that even a soldier returning victoriously from the front wouldn't have had three private aircraft waiting to ferry him. Yes, there were three private planes waiting at Yeravada for someone who'd been convicted for a serious offence and was coming out of jail. And the "privilege" of bringing him back went to his Pune-based best buddy Bala (of Venky's Chicken fame). Incidentally, Bala also has a Calcutta connection. He flies in and out to meet Moon Moon Sen.

One guesses that the biopic will not question this kind of star craze.

It is from Raju's new office that the biopic will roll out which will be a change for the director who has thus far operated from Vidhu Vinod Chopra's premises. It will be the first film that Raju will produce and direct from his own independent office. This is also the office where Ranbir Kapoor will drop in for workshop-script sittings.

It's been months since Ranbir broke up with Katrina but trying to take sneak shots of the two of them is still a profitable pastime for most photographers even if the actors come together only to glumly shoot Jagga Jasoos . While Ranbir is a natural actor and the strain won't show in his performance, an insider who knows the script says that Katrina will also come out well. Mainly because this is a musical and she has minimum dialogues to mouth. So everytime a point has to be made, instead of Katrina having to deliver lengthy lines, the playback singers take over and do the needful.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author