Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham and Lara Dutta in a poster from Zinda; (below) Lara in the title song

Why are you hell bent on not revealing the story of Zinda?

Why can?t we leave something for the audience to find out? Why do they have to know everything before going to the theatres? All I can say is that Zinda is an intense psychological thriller and it is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

When the censors gave you the option of a ?U/A? certificate why did you go for the ?A? certificate?

To be honest, I don?t want my children to watch a film like Zinda. It is definitely adult in content and very intense in treatment. The violence in the film is very graphic. I was given the choice by the censor board of accepting a ?U/A? certificate, but I had to cut out quite a sizeable portion of the stuff. But they were also ready to give me a clear ?A? certificate without any cuts. I was very happy with that.

Then, you are counting out the children and the family crowd from your target audience?

With Zinda, I am reaching out to all the adults, anybody and everybody above the age of 18. I do not have any target audience as such, just for the teens or just for the elderly. It is a very interesting story and should be enjoyed by everyone.

Didn?t the censor board have very good things to say about your film?

As the makers of the movie, you are not allowed to be inside the screening room when the censor board members are watching the film. So once the screening got over, I walked in and learnt that they were very receptive to the film. They told me Zinda is the best film they have seen in the entire year. This was, of course, in 2005. They also loved Sanjay Dutt?s performance in the movie.

How is it directing Sanjay, since the two of you have been working together for all these years?

It is very, very comfortable as compared to a new artiste I am directing. We have a certain understanding between us having worked for so many films together. I do write roles for him since I know that we will produce the film together. In fact, the two of us start from the basic idea and then develop it together. Sanju is almost like the co-director of the movie. He comes with tremendous inputs.

And what was it like working with John Abraham for the first time?

I feel this is the first of many a film that I am going to do with John. He?s a superstar in his own right. He has this cult status about him with a great fan following. Then, he?s amazingly disciplined. To top all that is his acting ability. I am just spellbound with the incredible job John has done in Zinda. After the film releases, I want him to be known as a serious actor and not just a very good-looking man.

What are Lara Dutta and Celina Jaitley doing in Zinda? Don?t women have very little to do in a Sanjay Gupta film?

Why? Musafir was around Sameera (Reddy). Here in Zinda, the women are very integral to the film. Celina?s is more of a special appearance. But Lara has a very, very strong role in the film. She is not there for decoration. She has this completely deglamourised role of a taxi driver in Bangkok. I would say that Lara has been very nice to trust me and my team and come and do this movie with us.

Sanjay Gupta

Why so? Just because Musafir flopped?

Who said Musafir flopped? The film got fantastic numbers everywhere. This is the problem with the Indian media. They are the judge, jury and executioner of the films. It wasn?t as big as Kaante. You can?t expect me to make a Sholay every time. Like Zinda is again a very different kind of film. It is my most personal film, very internalised.

You have come up with two separate albums for Zinda ? Lounge and Club versions?

That?s because Zinda is not a conventional screenplay for music. There was never any song situation as such and it?s a songless film. So, I got in touch with all these music folk like Strings and Shibani Kashyap and shared my vision with them. And then they came up with their individual musical interpretations. So, the music that you hear in the album is not from the film but born out of the concept much before Zinda went on the floors.

Will Zinda be able to see off Family ? Ties of Blood?

Both Zinda and Family are very intense films. And from the promos, Family is looking quite nice. Come on, it?s got the Big B, man. Then there?s Akshay and is made by Rajkumar Santoshi, someone I have always respected. So it?s an honour to release with them on the same day.