A three-release year seems like a lean one for you, after a six-release one. I want to come down to two! Hamari life mein bhaag daud kitni hai.

Do mahine se ghar nahi gaya hoon; just went for one day. I've been in Patiala all this time, shooting for "Sardar".

For 50 days I didn't even watch TV! I've been completely disconnected. You don't get shot at home for such prolonged absence? Nahi, ghar pe daant nahi padti, but I myself realize that I need to spend more time at home.

I do manage. Sometimes they come for the outdoor; they came there (Patiala) for 7-8 days.

Bachchon ke school bhi hai na, they can't take too many holidays. When did you last have to attend a parent-teacher meeting? Umm.

..

one and a half years ho gaya! I went for a function about three months back, though. My daughter insisted.

What's your Gujarat project about? Was rather surprising to see you at the press conference on solar projects there. Hats off to Modi to create a project like this, frankly.

..

I came to know that they were coming up with these tenders etc for solar power projects as a policy. I had partners who'd handled projects in power earlier.

The policy seemed very clear, so we asked for a meeting. We went there and said we're interested, our company fits into all the criteria that have been laid out.

He saw all that, and he said, done. I asked, who do we need to meet now? He said, you've met, it's done, now we'll follow up and coordinate, you don't have to come back.

They're so pro-business. Gujarat is the only state where there's no deficit of power, and now they're selling it outside.

And I believe in solar; I have had it in my farm, my home, even when it was far more expensive. So this excited me, both personally, and because the policies were very clear, very etched out.

For a long while, the political fallout of being seen near Modi, let alone so unequivocally in praise of Modi, would be a deterrent; but first Mr Bachchan, and now you, have been quite unapologetic about that. Look, I really don't know, I don't really bother about that, because the fact is that I am not getting politically involved in anything.

My funda is clear. As far as business goes, he's a fabulous businessman, he's doing great for Gujarat.

So I don't see a problem, why would anyone? Baaki politics hamari samajh mein aata nahi hai, aur na humko samajhna hai. Kajol's been quite low profile recently.

Yes, after Yug, she wanted to take it easy for a while. She's occupied with the child.

And she's happy that way, right now. The industry is obsessed with the word 'comeback'.

You must hear it often in her context? 'Comeback'. Yes (laughs).

Yeh word samajh mein nahi aata mujhe. Waise toh Kajol ne teen comeback kiye hain! I think the audience has changed.

Pehle kehte thay ki actresses ki ek age limit hoti hai. Now it is much better.

But only for those actresses who are known as actresses. If you've survived only on glamour , then you can't get older and still carry on.

For that, you need to be an actress. The others complain, this is not fair, but then they have to realise that you have to be an actress actress.

Who are the actress actresses today, then? Don't even go there. Hardly find any.

In today's time, hardly any. They all have their plus points, all are successful.

But if you say actress - not really. In today's time? Yesteryear's cinema had more appreciation for acting skills as opposed to vital stats, you mean? See, shuru se it has been there.

There have been actresses, and there have been good looking glamorous girls, and both have worked. In the really older days, you weren't wearing a bikini, you weren't showing off your body, so khubsoorti toh chahiye thi, lekin performance chahiye tha to last.

What's your position on the whole " The Dirty Picture " telecast drama? I don't know what to say on this. I believe the theme of the movie was an issue.

But that argument will never end. I'm seeing promos on TV that have explicit and suggestive language - I don't understand how they're OK for TV if a movie like that isn't.

Talking of National Award winning movies not being fit for telecast, are you aware that " Omkara " has not been approved for telecast till date? Kumar Mangat (the producer) says that he's placed all the cuts he's been asked to, and submitted it six times, but it hasn't been cleared for screening on TV. No, I didn't know that! There's no vulgarity in "Omkara"; once you edit the expletives out, what would the problem be? (less)

My journey has been very different because I am not so ambitious. But yes, I have been offered, I have gone through a lot of experiences, directly and indirectly," the 31-year-old told reporters at the launch of the book.

"It depends on individual to individual, it's what you choose. I have made my own decisions and I am happy with them," she added.

Riya, who herself got into trouble after allegedly being part of an MMS chain, says worrying about rumours is not her style. "I have read my own interviews where people have quoted me when I have not even spoken to that journalist.

I don't sit and cry or howl or say I am running away from India or world. I still get my work, my money, I still have the same lifestyle, my friends and same producers, directors call me.

So it (rumours) doesn't affect me," said Riya, who was last seen in "Benny and Babloo". Daughter of yesteryears actress Moon Moon Sen, Riya's journey in Bollywood began with "Style" in 2001.

She has featured in films like "Dil Vil Pyar Vyar", "Jhankaar Beats" and "Shaadi No. 1" and is currently working in "Krrish 2", in which she plays Vivek Oberoi's girlfriend (less)

Ajay who's currently shooting in Chandigarh for Son of Sardar , says he's happy to have chosen Gujarat over other states for his pet project. He says, "Gujarat has always been close to me because my films have worked very well here.

Whether it is Golmaal series or Singham , my films have been a favourite with the masses. I have always enjoyed my promotional trips to Gujarat.

Also there are no corruption issues in Gujarat government and the policies are clear." Incidentally Ajay's farmhouse at Karjat and home in Mumbai work under solar power (less)

I knew there was a lot of aggression and violence in Ishaqzaade. I knew we had shot a lot of violent scenes.

It's one thing to shoot them. To watch them is quite another.

When I watched my two beloved characters encounter such violence my stomach churned. Such was the nature of the subject.

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs. And the sooner we stop trying the better.

" To solve the problem of the communal divide Habib Faisal feels we first need to address the issue openly, which our movies fail to do by and large. Smirks Habib, "In that cast we might as well make government-sponsored DAVP (Directorate Of Advertising & Visual Publicity) short-films.

" In Ishaqzaade the unabashed treatment of Hindu-Muslim relations has taken audiences by surprise. Never before have we seen characters from the two communities exchanging insults based on communal differences, so openly.

In fact the Hindu hero Parma ( Arjun Kapoor ) refers to the Muslim heroine Zoya ( Parineeti Chopra ) as a 'Mussalli'. Half way through the film he decides to marry the 'Musalli' firebrand.

In a graphic love-making sequence in an abandoned train Kapoor and Chopra are shown indulging in serious real time kissing and making out. Director Habib Faisal admits he was apprehensive of how the censorboard would react.

"There's so much Ishaqzaade that we as movie makers and as a society in the larger context tend to sweep under the carpet. But if I as Muslim filmmaker shied away from addressing the issue headlong in attempting a Hindu-Muslim love story, then I think I'd have failed to convey what I had set out to.

The censorbard was exceptionally tolerant. The love-making scene is not gratuitous.

I shot it in a long single-shot scene. If the censors had asked me to cut I wouldn't have been able to," says Habib a day after the film's release.

As for the boy addressing the girl as 'Mussalli' Habib says, "In the beginning he means to rile her by calling her a 'Mussalli.' Later it becomes his term of endearment for her.

Why are focusing on the names? The problem is very deep. Hindus don't even know how to greet Muslims so a social level .

They wonder if they should say 'Salaam' or 'Namaste'. In my film when Zoya takes her lover Parma to her house he doesn't know how to greet Zoya's parents.

The initiation of a dialogue between two cultures starts on the wrong note." Habib thinks it is unrealistic to think the divide between Hindu and Muslims doesn't exist.

"It does. And to say by addressing the palpable problems that arise when a Hindu boy falls in a love with a Muslim girl is according to me unrealistic.

Look around. The Hindu-Muslim divide is everwhere.

In a so-called metropolitan city housing societies do not allow Muslims or Hindus depending on which area you're house-hunting in. In fact I've witnessed more communal integrity in rural areas.

" As a Muslim Habib became conscious of how deep those differences were after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. "These differences are normally swept under the carpet.

I don't think that helps.The fact is, we have not really progressed intellectually in understanding let alone bridging the chasm between the progressive and regressive India.

Just the other day a senior police officer in Bangalore publicly endorsed honour killing. Why does a couple belonging to two different cultures or communities have to meet suureptiiously in public places? I'll tell you why.

Because every parent, no matter how progressive outwardly,throws a fit if his or her child brings a mate home. This is why I made the Muslim girl Zoya's family an educated relatively sophisticated bunch of people.

I wanted to show, no matter how educated people still suffer from lethal prejudices about inter-communal alliances." What Habib didn't want to show was the small-town UP characters getting abusive in their spoken language.

"I knew I had the licence to let them get abusive. But I don't use abusive language in my speech and I'd be uncomfortable if my characters did the same.

Besides I find the generous use of BCs and MCs in the films set in the North Indian heartland distracting. Audiences laugh and snigger when a character uses abuses.

In this day and age of 'D.K Bose' my demurral on expletives is perhaps a little outdated.

I'd rather be true to myself than trendy." Habib says he watched some Hindi classics about outcast lovers as preparation for directing Ishaqzaade.

"I saw Mujhe Jeene Do and Reshma Aur Shera. But it was Dharmputra made in 1961 where I found the issue of the Hindu-Muslim divide being so unabashedly delineated.

Coincidentally it was the first film that Mr Yash Chopra directed. Today I've directed another film on the same theme for Mr Chopra's banner.

" Habib can't praise Aditya Chopra enough for giving him freedom to make the film he wanted. "Not once did Adi question the hardhitting content and the dialogues.

He left it all to me. I suppose it was my destiny.

I wouldn't have wanted to make a film on the communal divide without addressing the issue directly." The director admits he had to work very hard on his two actors, "Arjun Kapoor was put on a six-month trial period to see if he fits into the part of Parma.

To his credit he kept at it until he got it right. As for Parinati I had to take her native 'punjaabiyat' out of her and make her this Uttar Pradesh his mussalman ladki Zoya.

I was lucky with my actors. Except for Gauhar Khan I wanted no known faces in the supporting cast.

I stuck to my guns." As did the gun-toting characters of Ishaqzaade (less)

And not only did Big B request a tax waver for his film but expressed his willingness to be an ambassador for brand Gujarat after brand Uttar Pradesh. Talking to media persons, he said, "I have volunteered to the state government that they should make a documentary in which achievements of Gujarat should be highlighted.

I am willing to be a part of it. At a time when Aamir Khan had remarked that he did not know Modi, there was a relief for the CM as Big B praised him.

Modi turned it into a lifetime event even remarking that he was an Amitabh fan since his childhood. He said, "He has made enormous contribution to Indian film industry.

It's natural that all his fans are attracted towards him including me since I am also a common man." But to accommodate what Narendra Modi likes to call himself a common man the multiplex was taken over by security agencies as entry of commoners was restricted depriving the Big B fans a chance to have a glimpse (less)

Modi's current illness is perhaps the longest in his eight years of chief ministership and, maybe, in his 60 years of life (less)

Industrialist BK Modi almost gave up on Bollywood but is back in the saddle with Ashutosh Gowariker's Buddha (which will focus on the life of Prince Siddhartha and his journey to enlightenment), which was put on hold in July 2010. Despite alleged reports of him having had a fallout with Gowariker, including the industrialist supposedly demanding the signing amount back from the director, Modi, in an exclusive interview with Mumbai Mirror, insisted that everything is fine between the two and Buddha is back on track.

Modi further clarified, "I am not asking any money back from Ashutosh. There is no fallout between him and us.

Ashutosh has told me that after he completes his current film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (for PVR), he will devote time to my film." Modi however did not deny that he had a few problems in putting the project together.

One of the problems that Modi and Ashutosh apparently had was that they couldn't find someone to play Buddha. Soon after the duo announced their plans of making the biopic, they launched a website, Buddha-movie.

com, inviting applications from actors aspiring to play the divine protagonist. But despite going through over 6,000 photographs and videos, they failed to get the right candidate.

"We are trying to find the actor who will fit into that role. We need an established actor who is acceptable to distributors," said Modi.

Another problem that the makers encountered was mischief mongers on the project itself, who misused their powers and went overboard, which threw the project off-track. Consequently, Modi has incurred a certain loss, no doubt.

"Hopefully we'll recover that when the film is made," said Modi rather bravely. Ashutosh and Sunita Gowariker remained unavailable for comment (less)