She doesn’t believe in making statements. All Revathy wants to do is touch hearts. She did that with her first film Mitr: My Friend and that’s what she wants to do with her “second baby” Phir Milenge.

“That is why I took so long to make another film after Mitr. Nothing really touched me. All I wanted to do was to make a good film — something that I could sit and watch and really feel happy about, even after years. After all I was giving a part of my life into it. And then the topic of AIDS really disturbed me and I started to work on the story.”

Scripting was the most difficult aspect of Phir Milenge, admits Revathy. “We were not talking about the medical aspect of AIDS — but about a person’s emotion. It is a dark film because there are no medicines for the cure. The medicines can keep you going but death is looming somewhere out there. So to script something mainstream that could hold on to the theme was very tough.”

Revathy always wanted the film to be big. “I could have made a very small film, just for the festivals. But I had decided that the only way people can be made to watch the film was to make it with a whole lot of stars. Only when they see the likes of Salman and Shilpa on the big screen, they will give the theme a thought.”

She did face resistance at the start. “I spoke to some stars but they said they were busy. Then I approached Shilpa and Abhishek and they said ‘yes’ straightaway. Salman was the last to be cast. In fact, Abhishek accommodated his dates for my film. He believed in the cause and shot for 15 days on the trot.”

Shilpa’s item girl image didn’t deter Revathy from casting her as her main protagonist Tamanna. “Being an actress myself, I know all this business about images. The media make these images and the people buy them. But I knew Shilpa’s capabilities and once I met her in person, I knew I had taken the right decision.”

But it is Salman, her screen hero in Love, that Revathy was most excited about. “He is a gentleman. During the production of Love, he would come on time for the shoot and he did the same for Phir Milenge. He is extremely co-operative.”

Then why is her main character still a woman? “It is easier for me to relate to a woman’s problem. But I do not look at life as a man-woman divide — individuals are more important to me. You never know, some day I can make a male-oriented film, but from a woman’s point of view.”