Chaudhuri with actress Indrani Halder. (Top) A still from Rok Sako To Rok Lo

What was the last Bollywood film on school romance that everyone loved, many of us grew up on and some still miss? Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. A winner all the way.

After a good 12 years, it’s time to go back to school, Bollywood-style. And steering this trip to the campus is management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s Rok Sako To Rok Lo. Cushioned on a plump Rs 6.5 crore budget, the feel-good film about friendship, first love and fist-fights in high school launches 10 fresh faces, including lead pair Yash Pandit and Manjari Fadnis. The solitary big-name draw: Sunny Deol.

Banking on saleable stars is certainly not Chaudhuri’s style — the 30-something Delhi-based Bengali is rather keen to add a twinkle or two to the tinsel town sky. “Can you remember the last film that launched a hero and a heroine, two playback singers, a music composer and a director that lasted for years? It’s Qayamat Mat Se Qayamat Tak… I want to make such a film,” says the first-time director and CEO of Delhi-based Planman Life, who decided on the school-film genre driven by gut feel and market research.

“We had 30-odd story ideas from which we short-listed five and showed it around to a group of people. The results revealed that school romance was least exposed and there was a market for it. Then I wrote the script, which is totally youth-oriented,” he explains.

Chaudhuri had forayed into film production in 2002 with Sanjhbatir Rupkathara, based on a Joy Goswami novel, starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Indrani Halder.

For Yash Pandit and Manjari Fadnis, the lead roles in Rok Sako are exactly what dream debuts are made of. Planman Life went through 500 portfolios, met 75 boys and 75 girls, short-listed 25 from each group and held a three-day-long screen test before deciding on Him, a 25-year-old commerce graduate, and Her, a 20-year-old first-year BA student.

“I skipped my college exams for the three-month-long shoot. But I just loved playing a bubbly girl who is the jaan of the group. It’s all about first love and the sort of pranks we all play in school,” chirps Manjari. “It was a great learning experience and Planman has signed me up for four more films,” gushes Yash.

Except the all-new cast, the Rok Sako script demanded an “iconic figure with a great physique and imposing presence”. Sunny fitted the bill, filling the screen in a dream blue Harley Davidson bike. “Sunny has a very vital role of a friend who enters the lives of the youths and acts as an inspiration,” Chaudhuri explains. And guess what the kids call him — Phantom!

But why the decision to slip behind the camera, in trademark suit, slicked-back ponytail and all? “Because I couldn’t let my story be ruined by somebody,” is the candid reply. “Direction, I felt, was more like managing my own firm. I had people looking after the various departments like acting, music, choreography, camera, sound and editing, just as I have CEOs taking care of IT, finance and production at Planman. My job was basically to coordinate and guide them towards a common goal,” he adds.

With music being yet another strong point of Rok Sako — lyrics by adman Prasoon Joshi and a refreshing score by Jatin-Lalit — Chaudhuri feels he is poised to strike the right chord.

On November 12, which is also Diwali, Rok Sako takes on titan Yash Chopra’s Veer Zaara. Chaudhuri is confident that there is space for two movies on the same day, “just as Lagaan and Gadar”.

But before the box-office battle, the marketing manoeuvring. At a whopping Rs 3.5 crore, Planman has unleashed a chain of teaser promos in trade magazines, to be followed up by the main campaign in print from September 1. The TV promos will zoom into cable homes from September 16, which will also coincide with the film’s music launch.

Planman’s second Bengali venture, Phaltu, will take off in October starring Yash and Manjari in the lead. Based on Ranir Ghater Brittanto, a short story by Syed Mujtaba Siraj, the film will be directed by Anjan Das.