"It is great that 'Miss Lovely' is going to be screened at Cannes. I will be there for the screening and will reach Cannes mid-May.

But before that I am going to Berlin to finish the film's post-production," Ashim told PTI. The 40-year-old, who makes short films and documentaries, said it was the visibility of his first feature film "Jane and George" that got his second one into the coveted Cannes film festival.

"Jane and George was screened at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals. It also won a National award.

Moreover, I was named one of the ten best emerging film directors in 'Take 100: The Future of Film'. That got me onto the Cannes radar.

They asked me to send in a rough cut of 'Miss Lovely'. That's how the film got selected," said Ashim.

"Miss Lovely", set in the mid-eighties, is about two brothers who make C grade films in Mumbai. The film stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui of "Kahaani" fame, former Miss India contestant Niharika Singh and Anil George .

"I think the fact that the film is about cinema and filmmaking, that too in an unexplored industry, is what impressed selectors at Cannes," Ashim said. The film is an international co-production, with producers from Germany and Japan chipping in money (less)

So I spent time hanging out and drinking with people behind the film. The producer was an ex-convict, the actress was his mistress and the casting agent was a pimp who later got arrested for shooting a porn video in Karjat.

Basically, a great bunch of people who introduced me to everyone in the C-grade industry at the time. But they were too scared to talk on camera because there was so much overlap with the underworld and prostitution.

So the documentary I was trying to make never happened. The stories I heard and the people I met became the basis of the script for " Miss Lovely".

Is it true that you are uncomfortable working with Bollywood stars? Not uncomfortable, just not really interested. How did you decide on the cast of your debut feature film, especially Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Femina Miss India Earth 2005 Niharika Singh? I wanted people who felt very similar to the characters in the script.

I didn't really want them to act too much but just be. I didn't care about what they had done in the past.

So, in a sense, I'm the opposite of every other director. I want people that nobody knows.

I didn't know who Nawaz was - I just saw his screen test and was like "this guy is Sonu". Nobody wanted to give him a lead role for some strange reason.

It's only later that I realized that he might actually be one of the best actors we have in this country. It's great that he is finally getting his due.

Similarly, Niharika Singh had only done some modelling and an unreleased Himesh Reshammiya film. But her screen test was magnificent and that was that.

It really was the same with Anil George, who plays the elder brother, Vicky Duggal. How did you negotiate the difficulty of not turning your movie into sleaze even while choosing the C-grade film industry as your subject? You don't really kill people when you make a war film.

So I guess, it's the same here. Apart from the usual high of having "ML" being screened at the Un Certain Regard section, what else does this selection translate into for you both emotionally and professionally? I worked on this film for almost five years, so it's nice that others share some of the same love I have for it.

"Miss Lovely" also gets away from the typical cliches expected of Indian cinema - that either it's a song-and-dance show or it's a story of a struggling rural schoolboy. And yet it's very confident of its Indianness as a film and I'm proud of that.

I think it shows that we have a more diverse cinematic vocabulary in this country. The only official Indian entry at Cannes Film Festival last year -"Chatrak" - hasn't yet released in India.

When are you planning the Indian release of your movie? It has quite a lot of "difficult" material, to put it politely. So it needs to get past censors first.

For me, it is almost more important to show the film in India than anywhere else but knowing the way our distributors operate and their singular interest in stars, I am sort of aware of that reality. Let's hope for the best.

Despite your documentary, "John & Jane", having had a world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival followed by a European premiere at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and winning a National Film Award in 2007, why is it that you have avoided the limelight? I don't really enjoy doing press, and I'm not too interested in Bollywood. So, there isn't much point.

"John & Jane" was supposedly rejected at a festival in Mumbai before he finally went on to win a National Award. How did you manage to reconcile with the initial setback of rejection? I first sent it to the Mumbai International Film Festival.

It was rejected, and I was really disappointed. But then the film was accepted to the Toronto Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival and won a European Media Award.

I kind of realised that my film wasn't all that bad. This is the disappointing truth: If the film hadn't hit the international festival circuit, if it hadn't been picked up by international distributors, I don't think it would have stood a chance in India.

Things are a bit better now, though. Your films short film, "The Dust", was made by reworking home movies shot by your grandfather in the 1950s.

Why did you choose such a format? I like the idea of recycling film, reusing it in new and different ways. "Miss Lovely" also has material that was shot in the 1980s, including horror films and sleaze films and I've reused those as part of the story.

Film has so much history embedded in it - we shouldn't ignore that. I love seeing that classic establishing shot of Marine Drive shot from where Cafe Naaz used to be on Malabar Hill.

The classic "Queen's Necklace" shot - that is the quintessential Bombay/Mumbai image and which features in films starting from the 1920s going all the way to today. That shot has so much history.

It's amazing. Your work displays experimentation in terms of structures, often blurring the lines between documentary and fiction.

Who else among your peers in India would you say is also working with form in their movies? There are some filmmakers experimenting with different kinds of formal structures in India, but not too many feature filmmakers do that anymore. We had a history of people like Mani Kaul and G.

Aravindan, but you don't see that now. Even typical Bollywood melodrama of the 1970s had some really weird and amazing flashback/ flashforward structures.

I love stuff like double and triple roles. We need to do more of that! How are you adjusting to this new-found media glare? It's easy because I just avoid most of it.

People tend to get the message (less)

He was unable to walk without help as his weight had increased. The neglect and indifference towards the physical fitness his father had insisted on began after S.

Mukherjee Sahab's (father) passing away," Dilip Kumar wrote on his blog thedilipkumar.mouthshut.

com. Joy, known for films like Love in Simla, Shagird and Love in Tokyo , passed away on March 9.

He was suffering from thalassemia. "I was witness to the care and love he (Sashadhar Mukherjee) lavished on his son Joy.

He wanted to see Joy scale great heights as a star. It was not just a loving father's desire to see his son shine as a star on the screen; it was the conviction of the man who had spotted, groomed and launched some of the more adored stars of the Hindi cinema besides writers, directors, technicians, singers and composers.

The 89-year-old actor said that Mukherjee had even hired a wrestler, who would help Joy through regular exercise regime. "For Joy's physical fitness and part of his 'gyming', Mukherjee Sahab had hired a wrestler, a tough pleasant guy who knew his job well with oiled curly hair falling over his forehead," wrote Dilip Kumar.

"A wrestling ring was created a regular sand 'akharda' and it was the wrestler's duty to see that Joy and his brothers take regular lessons from him..

. Joy had no option but to obey his father and I guess he knew what his father expected from him.

Joy became one of the heartthrobs of the nation after his debut and I could see the pride in Mukherjee Sahab's eyes," he added. Tweet (less)

He was unable to walk without help as his weight had increased. The neglect and indifference towards the physical fitness his father had insisted on began after S.

Mukherjee Sahab's (father) passing away," Dilip Kumar wrote on his blog thedilipkumar.mouthshut.

com. Joy, known for films like Love in Simla, Shagird and Love in Tokyo , passed away on March 9.

He was suffering from thalassemia. "I was witness to the care and love he (Sashadhar Mukherjee) lavished on his son Joy.

He wanted to see Joy scale great heights as a star. It was not just a loving father's desire to see his son shine as a star on the screen; it was the conviction of the man who had spotted, groomed and launched some of the more adored stars of the Hindi cinema besides writers, directors, technicians, singers and composers.

The 89-year-old actor said that Mukherjee had even hired a wrestler, who would help Joy through regular exercise regime. "For Joy's physical fitness and part of his 'gyming', Mukherjee Sahab had hired a wrestler, a tough pleasant guy who knew his job well with oiled curly hair falling over his forehead," wrote Dilip Kumar.

"A wrestling ring was created a regular sand 'akharda' and it was the wrestler's duty to see that Joy and his brothers take regular lessons from him..

. Joy had no option but to obey his father and I guess he knew what his father expected from him.

Joy became one of the heartthrobs of the nation after his debut and I could see the pride in Mukherjee Sahab's eyes," he added. Tweet (less)

I still remember the galawati kebabs and paranthas we had from this eatery in Old Lucknow. We were here for "Aradhana".

There was nothig called a promo for a film prior to its release. The name of Rajesh Khanna was a promotion in itself.

In Lucknow women were going crazy seeing him on the streets. He was undoubtedly a heartthrob.

" M ohd Salman Khan (less)

A source reveals, "She's been working on the script for the last few months. Bhushan too has been giving his inputs and he's quite excited for his wife directorial debut.

" Needless to say he will produce the film. Pati ho toh aisa (less)

"Even after over 20 years in this industry, it never fails to make me smile when I see myself on the side of a bus that I once used to run after," tweeted Akshay, who came across the poster of his forthcoming release " Housefull 2 ". Akshay's struggle for success saw him passing through the bylanes of Chandni Chowk in the capital of Bangkok , where he learnt martial arts as well as worked as a chef and waiter.

He returned to Mumbai, and a small modeling assignment ticked off his career in showbiz and changed his life (less)

. It was reported that not all was well in Akshay Kumar-Twinkle Khanna's paradise.

And that the handsome couple was heading for a split. What triggered the rumours was the observation that Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna hadn't attended any social do together for a long time now - something that they did more often a few months ago.

It was noticed that Akshay didn't go where Twinkle did, and vice versa. However, a source close to the couple says that it's silly to assume things like these.

"Akshay and Twinkle are perfectly happy. Akshay takes out time for the family; he is crazy about Twinkle and dotes on Aarav.

" We are told that Akshay, too, was so miffed with the rumours, that he is heard to have said, "You speak anything about me and my work, it's ok, but getting family into it all is insensitive, and especially news that is false and would upset my family." The actor is extremely guarded about his parivaar and wouldn't let any harm come to them.

Only a few weeks ago, problems between Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan were reported. But all's well that ends well.

And fortunately, no one's doing the 'split' in Bollywood just yet (less)

Akki posted a funny picture of him pampering his wife Twinkle on his social networking site this morning. Writing about this special day he wrote "Happy Slavery Day to all devoted men! If we can't appreciate the Woman we love on Valentine's Day then we don't deserve them.

So be a man and pamper your lady just like me." Akshay has said in his earlier interview that Twinkle's every wish is his command.

But more than anything else his wife craves for his time. Thus, the actor has decided to spend some quality time with her and son Aarav this Valentine's Day.

Being happily married to Twinkel Khanna, the duo celebrated their 11th marriage anniversary recently. Akshay doesn't deny the fact that he is die-hard romantic and would love to celebrate love not just one day in the year but every day of every week (less)