lWhat projects is Planman Motion Pictures working on, apart from Rituparno Ghosh’s Sunglass?

There’s Rajat Kapoor’s Mithiya, also on the floors. It’s Rajat’s take on the underworld, just as Satya was Ram Gopal Varma’s. The film is about an actor who gets involved with the underworld and what happens to him then. Ranvir Shorey plays the lead, while Naseeruddin Shah is the underworld don and Neha Dhupia is his moll.

Then there’s a film by Aziz Mirza which will be on the floors by December. And I will start my next film in January.

lWhat is your next directorial venture about?

I am hooked on to young people and their stories. So, my next film is again based in a college-school set-up but this will be something very contemporary, unlike Rok Sako To Rok Lo. It will be called Bollywood. I am intrigued by TV reality shows and talent hunt shows like Indian Idol, where kids are just looking for instant fame. Studies and everything else have taken a backseat for them, especially in small cities like Pune, Ahmedabad and Mysore. Then, after a month of fame, frustration and depression set in slowly.

So Bollywood is about a bunch of youths wanting to achieve fame. The film will also explore a lot of intricacies that are there in Bollywood and how the industry works. I hope to make a film that’s entertaining and also has a small message.

lHave you finalised the cast for Bollywood?

The screen tests are on. It’s very difficult to find people who can carry off such roles. We will shoot in India in January and in London in April. There is a girl in the story who comes to try her luck in Bollywood from London. There may be some known faces in guest appearances.

There will also be a lot of technical people from the UK. The music will have to be good and contemporary and so we are in talks with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. Habib, who wrote Salaam Namaste, is writing the script.

lAs a director, don’t you feel it’s more difficult working with newcomers with no celluloid experience?

Yes, it is. There’s a lot of wastage and the cost goes up a little bit. But it’s just a fraction when compared to what a star charges. And it’s also challenging to find new talent. My instincts are around the youth. That’s what I am most comfortable doing. We came across scripts that were safe but there was no motivation in that. I am not interested unless the film is up against some odd.

lWouldn’t this film be a risk again? What does the Rok Sako experience say?

We need to focus on the distribution aspect this time, especially for a film with no stars.

Also, the last film wasn’t gripping. It could have been shorter by 20-30 minutes. A film with newcomers has to be very racy and gripping.

lIs direction like a hobby for you?

I wasn’t supposed to make Rok Sako in the first place. I would have made a film maybe 10 years later.

But when the director of Rok Sako backed out at the last moment, I stepped in. Because the only other option was to throw the film away.

Now I wouldn’t mind directing a film after a three-four year break...It, of course, is a hobby.

lWill the Aziz Mirza film have his favourite actor Shah Rukh Khan?

Aziz had, in fact, written a script with Shah Rukh in mind and he needed a three-month shoot in the US. But Shah Rukh could not spare bulk dates. So now we are working on a different script.

lWhat are your plans of establishing Planman as a key player in the film industry?

We need films coming out every three to four months, and we are slowly moving towards that. Sunglass will release sometime in February, Mithiya in March, and then there’s the Aziz Mirza film and my film.

There would be one more by Rituparno and one by Anjan Das. So roughly six films in 2007. One has to develop a brand and find a market just as Ram Gopal Varma and Mahesh Bhatt have done with their kind of films. That is the first stage.

lAre you happy with the response to Dosor? What else are you planning with Rituparno?

Dosor was phenomenal for us. We should have made it in Hindi too, like Sunglass. The film has been selected for the Hamburg International Film Festival in October.

Initially we had decided to make three films with Rituparno.

Now we have four more lined up! And all these will be in Hindi.