Sohail Khan, Ashish Chaudhry, Dino Morea, Zayed Khan and Riteish in a moment from Fight ClubVikram Chopra directing Dino and Amrita Arora on the sets of Fight Club

You couldn?t have missed him as the good doctor in the second half of Kareeb (that is if you did see that Vidhu Vinod Chopra dud at all). You might have spotted him as part of Sanjay Dutt?s core team of cops in Mission Kashmir. He even faced the camera for Tanuja Chandra?s Sangharsh and Shyam Benegal?s Hari Bhari. But Vikram Chopra?s name has now come into big-font bracket as the director of the forthcoming film Fight Club.

?I always had the desire to make a film and the thought was there at the back of my mind,? Vikram tells Metro. ?The reason I wanted to act was that I needed to go through the psychological upheavals actors go through while shooting. I thought I should understand the emotions of an actor before I direct my own cast. And also, if I have to enact a scene to my actors, I should be able to enact it well.?

So Vikram kept ?experiencing and experimenting? in front of the camera even though his heart lay behind it. Finally, when the time came to switch roles, the man fell short. ?Around 10 years back, Sohail (Khan) and I ? we have been friends for over 15 years now ? decided to make a movie. We started probing a lot of ideas. The only thing certain was that we would make the film together. But the idea we were toying with didn?t work out and I had to wait again.?

The wait was finally over when Fight Club happened. ?I call it a romantic action film,? says Vikram. ?It?s about how these four friends ? Zayed Khan, Riteish, Ashish Chaudhry and Dino Morea ? set up this fight club just for time-pass and some extra bucks. But in the course of time, the club becomes a venue for serious stuff. Fight Club has all the emotions in place ? it has action, a fair bit of humour, romantic angles? everything you go to the movies for.?

But doesn?t all the dhoom-dhadaka in the promos alienate the family crowd? ?The teasers were so designed to jolt the audiences,? Vikram reveals. ?We have all kinds of movies ? dramas, musicals, comedies ? but we haven?t had an action movie for a long time. Yes, there was a Dus but there the songs were the main attraction. So we wanted to promote Fight Club as an action film but that won?t isolate the families for sure. Even the title won?t be a put-off because even when you have a title like Family, families don?t come in!?

Vikram Chopra directing Dino and Amrita Arora on the sets of Fight Club

Being in the director?s chair was anything but easy for Vikram as he had to handle an ensemble cast of 12 actors that included names like Suniel Shetty and Zayed Khan. ?I would call it my greatest achievement to handle so many different kinds of actors,? claims the young director. ?What helped was the fact that we were all good friends and the actors respected me a lot. I was always very clear about what I wanted from them.?

What turned out to be the easiest task for Vikram was directing his producer, Sohail. ?He was the easiest guy to direct because he completely gave himself to me. He never put his foot down as the producer. He would suggest something at the most but never dictate terms. I found the whole idea of directing him quite funny,? he laughs.

Vikram has no qualms accepting the fact that Fight Club?s release date was postponed due to the one-week delay of Rang De Basanti. ?Aamir Khan is such a big star, this is the least we could have done to show respect to him and his film. Then, we had the One-Day cricket matches between India and Pakistan. So we have now decided upon February 17 as the release date. I hope the impact of Rang De Basanti will die down by then and people would come to watch our movie.?