In a nine-year-old career, he's made movies which make you marvel. 'Rangeela', 'Daud', 'Satya', 'Mast' 'Shool' and now jungle!.

"Daud’, ‘Satya’, ‘Kaun’, ‘Mast’, ‘Shool’; you have been churning out so many quality movies so fast. What's the secret?
Where do you get your motivational energy and inspiration from? "As far as speed is concerned I feel this is basically exaggerated. I think I take as much time as anyone else the world over. There are just a few filmmakers in Mumbai who take a long time. Even big budget movies in Hollywood, take eight weeks in principal shooting. Adding songs to our films would take another twenty days. I think a seventy-eighty day shoot is a very comfortable time period we're talking about. As far as subjects are concerned I think I'm a voracious reader somewhere, I keep meeting people, and anything that excites me at a point of time. If I feel its got material enough to make a film on it, I might set up a couple of writers on it. They will be working simultaneously on it while I do a film. So when it reaches a certain stage I decide whether I want to do the film or not. Also, apart from films I don’t do anything else. I don’t have any other life. So I guess it’s okay."

You tried your hand at comedy with 'Daud'. Why do you think it flopped?
"It was a very big flop. People didn’t like it. The story should have had a kind of linear-progression, which I feel I completely missed out on. I was trying to be clever in the film. I was just trying to impress. Whether it’s a comedy, an action film, a romance, it needs to have a central emotional hook at the end, to make the movie move forward, which didn’t happen. ‘Daud’ lacked it completely."

You come across as a modern filmmaker with a yen for making slick movies. Why haven’t you experimented with family dramas, considering they do so well?
"It’s not that I'm against family dramas, but there should be something in the subject that excites me, attracts my attention. There has to be some factor that excites me. Not just telling a simple story. There has to be some extra bit that attracts my attention, I could put my family drama in it, but not simply a family drama. Normal things between people revolt me. Husband and wife fighting, I just can’t do it; they wasting their time on simple family matters."

In your capacity as co-producer of ‘Shool’ you have cast Raveena and not your favourite Urmila. Reason?
"For that particular role in ‘Shool’, I thought Raveena would be more suitable for the role so I took her."

Post ‘Rangeela’, you seem to be doing extremely well on your own; whereas Aamir is doing fabulously well on his own. Isn’t it high time the two of you bury your differences and get-together to give us another great film?
"Aamir, I believe, has gone on to say that he doesn’t want to work with me. So I don’t think there is anyway going to be another film with the two of us together. And since the film itself is not about to be made, where does the question of a good film come from? He doesn’t like me."

Post ‘Satya’ we keep hearing about Manoj (Bhiku Mhatre) Bajpai. Whatever happened to the hero Chakravarthy?
"I don’t think anybody makes films with the intention of trying to promote somebody. I just take whoever I think is right for the film. I'm not in the industry to make films specifically with Manoj Bajpai or anyone else. If he's good for a certain film I take him."

Is your faith in your ‘Mast’ hero, Aftab Shivdasani, justified?
Considering he’s a total newcomer? "That’s for the public to say. It was only because I thought he was really good that I took him. I would have shelved the film halfway through if I realized he was not working out."

Subhash Ghai has started a new, corporate trend by having ‘Taal’ insured. Are you also planning to go the same route by insuring your films in the future? "I'm not really very aware of the process. And I haven’t really given it a thought. But since people are talking about it, let’s see."

With most producers opting for Hyderabad and even overseas, do you think Mumbai has lost its status as the film making capital of India? "I don’t think so. I think they shoot outside more to have a good time. Also, shooting in Hyderabad would probably cost less than shooting in Mumbai. And with shooting in Mumbai there are timing constraints. There are too many things to distract you. The other producers, the traffic, the distances. In places like Hyderabad and also abroad, the working hours are increased. That could be one incentive."

Who is the director you admire most?
"Shekhar Kapoor."

Mani Ratnam, Shekhar Kapoor and you came together as producers for ‘Dil Se’. Can we hope to see any such more ventures in the future?
"We had dissolved the company during the making of ‘Dil Se’ itself. We had only formed it so as to see our three names together. There are no immediate plans of us getting back in the future."

As one of the producers, what was your reaction to the failure of 'Dil Se'. Where do you think it went wrong?
"For the same reason as ‘Daud’. People didn’t like it. It’s a big myth that the director knows what people like. He’s probably the last guy to know. You're trying to make a film over a period of one or two years or whatever. To sustain the emotional concentration for over two years, which eventually the audience is going to see in three hours, is not a joke. It’s like your child. You think your child is good-looking, whereas the others may find fault with its eyes or the nose. You keep standardizing the movie to something which is on your mind; which might not reach out to the audience at the end of the day. I think it’s a question of time alone."