Sriram Raghavan is on to his next film.
The erstwhile assistant to Ram Gopal Varma made his directorial debut in the latter's production Ek Hasina Thi featuring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar. The film met with critical acclaim.
"Quite a few people approached me [after Ek Hasina Thi]," he said. "But since I was committed to Ramu [Varma], I couldn't get started. Ramu was keen on doing a comedy. I wasn't sure."
Whoever approached Sriram wanted to do a remake or wanted a ready script. "I had two or three scripts which I liked, but nothing was finalised."
While Sriram was still deciding which script to take up next, he met producer Gaurang Dosh (Aankhen, Deewaar: Let's Bring Our Heroes Home).
"He liked my script." The film is tentatively titled Trishul. "Gaurang likes to name his films after fancy titles of earlier films," he smiled. Eventually, he added, the title will be retained only if it suits the theme of the film.
Sriram and his younger brother Sridhar have written the script. "We should lock the final draft of the script in two weeks' time," he said.
Working with the younger sibling, who also wrote the screenplay for Khakee and Deewaar, "has been good fun so far", he said. "Whether it was good or bad collaboration, we will come to know only afterwards."
Will this Trishul be a multi-starrer as well? The earlier one, directed by Yash Chopra, featured Sanjeev Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Raakhee, and Poonam Dhillon.
"It won't be a multi-starrer as such," said Sriram, "but there will be two prominent stars." It is reported that Bachchan will be one of the two "prominent stars". But the film-maker believes "there is no point in approaching him [AB] till the script is 100 per cent [ready]. Nowadays actors want to know the complete flow of the script."
He added, "I just hope my film is as good and well received as Trishul was."
