'I want to bring sex out of the closet'

 After recovering from his near-fatal accident in December, Kaante filmmaker Sanjay Gupta has started his new directorial venture Musafir, starring the Kaante trio -- Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty and Mahesh Manjrekar.

 Anil Kapoor has also joined the cast.

 Says Gupta, "I have to take chances and push the envelope further [than Kaante]. The central female character in Musafir will be a femme fatale who uses her sexuality to get where she wants. Musafir will be a sexy film.

 "[Filmmaker] Paul Verhoeven did Basic Instinct after Total Recall. Likewise, my growth is from Kaante to Musafir," says Gupta. "I have always wanted to do a film like this. I want to bring sex out of the closet through Musafir. I wanted to remake Fatal Attraction but it was made into a very ridiculous Hindi film recently [Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, starring Fardeen Khan, Urmila Matondkar, Sonali Kulkarni]. In Hindi films, sex is still a dirty word. Musafir will be for Bollywood what Basic Instinct was for Hollywood. I want to be adventurous this time."

 Gupta wants to make Musafir in a single schedule at the end of October.

 After a four-month recovery with broken ribs and a shattered spleen, Gupta says he is pleasantly surprised to see the glowing reviews Kaante received from the international press: "US Weekly had a full page about Kaante being the first Indo-US production and how it rescued Bollywood from the doldrums. Sight & Sound says, 'Comparing Kaante to Reservoir Dogs [Kaante is inspired from the Quentin Tarantino film] would be a disservice to Kaante.' Empire

has raved about my film. Kaante is my first success, but I was not around. I could not read in the hospital because I could not hold a newspaper."

 Gupta claims the accident has changed his outlook to life and work. "Creative decisions come spontaneously to me now. Maybe it also has to do with my renewed confidence after Kaante's success."

 After Kaante, Gupta's production company, White Feathers, which he owns in partnership with Sanjay Dutt, has decided against collaborating with outside organisations for finance. "Even my next production, Plan, which we started shooting from April 23, is by White Feathers," Gupta says. "We may consider mergers with bigger companies. Unfortunately, our first attempt at a merger did not work out. Musafir is big, but not as big as Kaante. I will bring my Kaante technicians from Hollywood to Mumbai. We are stretching our legs according to our budget."

 "When Anil Kapoor and I started talking about doing a film together," he adds, "we thought of doing a small-budgeted quickie in 30 days. But then, like Kaante, Musafir grew with every discussion. Maybe I can't think small."

 Musafir's screenplay and dialogues are by Anurag Kashyap who is also working on Mani Ratnam's next Hindi film. "Anurag and I had our differences during Kaante," explains Gupta. "But I am here to make films I believe in, even if it puts people off. No run-of-the-mill formula films for me."