Sunny Deol to co-direct 'Man' with script-writer Neeraj Pathak

Mumbai, Aug 7 (UNI) Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is all geared up to revive his home banner Vijeta Films by producing at least four movies a year.

Out of the four currently in the planning stages, 'Man' will be co-directed by the actor with script writer Neeraj Pathak. Besides, there is a film starring Bobby Deol, himself and 'Masters' starring the three Deols, directed by Anil Sharma.

Sunny made his debut with 'Betaab' in the early 80s under the banner of Vijeta Films, launched by his father the legendary Dharmendra, in the directorial baton of Rahul Rawail.

Talking to UNI here, Sunny said he had decided to concentrate on his in-house productions since he would have complete control over the project.

''I will do outside banners only if the script and role was good enough,'' he said.

He said he was overwhelmed at the box office response as well as that of the critics to 'Apne', wherein he acted with his brother and father together for the first time.

Responding to a question on the failure of his films like 'Fool n Final' and 'Naksha', released earlier this year, Sunny said actors do a particular project but they do not know its outcome. Hence, there is no point in discussing failures except owning up the responsibility.

Declining to divulge details of 'Man', Sunny said the film will go on floors in January 2008. Apart from co-directing the film, he will also star in it.

''Directing is a full time job and one cannot devote time to other projects.'' He said he was forced to do his first directorial project 'Dillagi'.

''I was cornered into directing it,'' he said, without mentioning the stand-off with Gurinder Chaddha during the making of 'London', which was scrapped and instead a new story and script 'Dillagi' was put up.

Sunny said he planned to take up direction in near future, but would concentrate on reviving Vijeta Films and doing in-house productions at the moment. ''Direction is quite a burden.But I am taking things as they come,'' he added.

The actor said his company's tie-up with K Sera Sera was on and the first project was in scripting stages.

He said he was happy with his career and had no regrets.

Replying to questions, Sunny said he had worked with newcomers most of time.

''I concentrated on subjects more than the makers or may be big banners did not come to me,''he said.

Sunny rated 'Betaab', 'Arjun', 'Dacait', 'Yateem', 'Damini' and 'Ghayal' among his personal favourites.

He said he was presently occupied with shooting for 'Mera Bharat Mahan', directed by Sameer Karnik, which stars apart from himself, Bobby Deol, Mithun Chakravarty, Preity Zinta and Salman Khan.

Similarly, there was also 'Right or Wrong' with Konkana Sen Sharma and others directed by Neeraj Pathak, which was being produced by Subhash Ghai.

When asked about his film 'Kaafila', which releases this week, Sunny said he liked its idea and story about illegal immigrants.

''This is an untouched drama about lives of such immigrants across the world,'' he said.

To a question on him playing a Pakistani character after mouthing anti-Pakistan dialogues in some of his films like 'Gadar', Sunny said ''I play a character in a film, whether Indian or Pakistani is not the question.'' UNI MR SSS RKM KP1125