by Subhash K Jha

What's the multi-faceted Rajpal Yadav doing in a film called Ladies Tailor, opening on Friday?

Sounds like a risqué ribald and vulgar project.

"Well. It isn't quite all of these," laughs Rajpal from London where he's shooting for Priyadarshan's Bhagam-Bhaag.

"But I must say I regret doing this film...Not that it was a bad project to begin with. On the contrary it's a remake of a very famous South Indian film that was released some two decades ago.

When the producer Srinivas agreed to remake the Telugu film I was very excited. After all it isn't everyday that one gets to do the remake of a comedy classic."

But Rajpal felt things going wrong from Day 1. " I guess the director Uday Kant didn't have much grip over the original's giggly grammar. The film has ended up being slightly embarrassing for me. But it will run in the interiors where people go for such humour."

He asserts that the film isn't vulgar. Then adds, "At least I haven't done anything vulgar, nor uttered a single double-meaning dialogue. Whenever they asked me to, I put my foot down."

It was Rajpal's own idea to remake Vamsi's 1986 Telugu film Ladies Tailor into Hindi. "In fact I shared my idea with my two favourite director Ram Gopal Varma and Priyadarshan. They both seemed very excited by it, and asked me to go ahead with it.

But finally I guess it didn't work out the way I had planned. Hota hai. You learn from your mistakes. This one mistake will probably prevent me from making fifty other mistakes. Now I'm looking forward to my next release as a leading man Hello Hum Lallan Bol Rahen Hain.