Remember the Urmila Matondkar-Saif Ali Khan starrer "Ek Hasina Thi"? Its director Sriram Raghavan has been lying low since the release of his maiden film 16 months ago.

But now he is ready to direct as many as four films one after another.

The first two are projects for producer Gaurang Doshi. "The first untitled film is a crime thriller. It pays a homage to my favourites from the genre - Vinod Chopra's 'Parinda', Ramesh Sippy's 'Shakti', Raj Kumar Santoshi's 'Ghayal' and Ram Gopal Vama's 'Satya'."

The film, Raghavan admits, will be massive in scale. "But to call it an epic would be going too far. We use such words too freely."

He admits he loves the thriller genre. "But that doesn't mean all my films would be thrillers. In fact my second film for Gaurang Doshi will be a fantasy. My first film, 'Ek Hasina Thi', was certainly a thriller. And though it didn't do as well as expected, people who matter, including Doshi, noticed what I had done.

"I enjoyed working with Urmila Matondkar and Saif Ali Khan. In fact I'm planning a project with Saif. That will come next year."

The fourth project for producer Jhamu Sugandh is going to be "more in the league of 'Ek Hasina Thi', with a lot of characters...Let's see which one I make first.

"If all goes well, I kick-start with the Amitabh Bachchan-John Abraham project for Doshi in September. However, that depends on whether Bachchan can spare bulk dates this year. Right now his date diary is chock-a-block. But I'm holding my breath to work with Bachchan. I think it's a dream come true for every director in the country."

How come no project with Sriram's mentor Ram Gopal Varma? Has Varma made it a habit to introduce new directorial talent and then let them loose in the film market?

"Nothing like that. Ramu and I are constantly in touch. In fact after 'Ek Hasina Thi', he constantly kept pushing me to start a new film. I will have to learn the art of multi-tasking from Ramu because I can only do one film at a time.

"We're discussing ideas for a film that I'll be doing for Ramu. That could be my fifth project in a row! So I guess I'm booked for the next two years."

--Indo-Asian News Service