You had cancelled your plans for a premiere of Dhamaal because of Sanjay Dutt’s imprisonment. Now that he is out on bail, is a premiere on the cards?

I spoke to Sanju on the phone after he was released and I’m very happy that he is out. I had met Sanju on the day of his judgment and was amazed by his large-heartedness — instead of talking about his own worries, he was inspiring confidence in me about my film. Now, if he expresses a desire, we will have the premiere — a dhamaal for sure.

Why is your film called Dhamaal?

The film is a dhamaal (fun-filled) film. I couldn’t figure out a better name for it. The rights of the title were with Ramesh Taurani and we are grateful to him for giving us the title as a friendly gesture.

You have worked mostly with Anil Kapoor and Aamir Khan in the past. How did you think of Sanjay Dutt for this film?

I have worked with so many actors but there’s no one like Sanju. He would come on the sets, read the script and say ‘Let’s take’. At first, I was a bit sceptical. So I asked him to rehearse. But I realised he had the ability to read his director’s mind, when he performed, just as well in the rehearsals too.

It’s very odd for a Hindi film not to have a heroine!

Yes it is odd, but with heroines there is a lot of crying and all. Dhamaal is a comedy.

Besides Riteish, why haven’t you repeated your Masti actors like Viveik and Aftab?

I did work with Viveik in Pyare Mohan. In Dhamaal I would have loved to work with Aftab but there is no script for him right now.

You chose to work for the first time with Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi and Ashish Chaudhuri...

Jaaved is one of the finest actors of our country but he has not got his due. He will get his due through Dhamaal — he is the surprise package. Arshad is a very seasoned actor while Ashish is a very obedient and dedicated, a keen learner.

Which was the toughest scene to shoot?

The plane sequence — check it out in the promos if you haven’t already done so. We had to hire a chopper to shoot the scene. A strong gust of wind was blowing and it was quite perilous to shoot over the mountains. There was the fear of toppling out of the chopper, but it was fun.

A lot of people felt that you ushered in a coarse brand of humour with Masti. Are you proud of Masti?

Yes, I’m very proud of Masti. People would constantly carp that my films were typical of the age-old formula. So I decided to do something very modern. With Masti I have set new standards.

And now you seem fixated on comedy...

Yes. The young want comedy. They are fed up of the saas-bahu sagas on TV, news of violence and robberies on TV. They want fun for their ticket money.

Do you feel threatened by the onslaught of new-age directors?

You can put petrol to two uses: you can either burn yourself with it or you can fill your car with it and travel. I do the latter. I don’t perceive the new directors as a threat, I would rather learn from them.

How has your style of film-making changed in the past 17 years?

There has been no change in my style except that I now make use of modern equipment and technology. It’s been 17 years now since I began my film-making career — my life has been a roller-coaster ride. I have seen highs and lows. Okay, there was a setback when three films of mine flopped back to back; that was a tough time. But I guess hits and flops are part of film-making.

You have copied the tagline of Buddha Mar Gaya...

We had an extra word in our line. Our line was ‘Beware you might just die laughing’ while their tag line was ‘You will die laughing’. So it’s not a problem really.

Will you work with Madhuri Dixit now that she has made a comeback?

Yes, she is my dream actress. But I don’t have a script for her as of now.

It is said that you are very superstitious about using a table to sit on while shooting and there is a particular tree in Bangalore which also features in every film...

Yes, it is true. But now I have to survive without them as someone chopped down the tree and my table was thrown into the bonfire!