/> After recording a song by the increasingly reclusive Nightingale for his new cola-and-food film Corporate Madhur Bhandarkar and his music composer Shamir Tandon decided to keep back the song for a rainy day.

"Arrey," exclaims Madhur on a rain-lashed Tuesday morning. "They're writing that I've dropped Lataji's song! Who in his right mind would do something so outrageous?

We did record a song with Lataji because after she sang Kitne ajeeb rishte hain yahan par in Page 3 we consider her a lucky mascot.

She did a beautiful song for us. We planned to use it. But it just didn't fit in. So Lataji, Shamir and I decided to use it in a future project. Now Shammir and I have decided to use it in a future project. A song by her is too precious.'

After Rang De Basanti, Madhur Bhandarkar is hoping Corporate would be the second sleeper success of 2006.

"It has no conventional storytelling, no real leading man or leading lady. The film has no conventional format or trappings. I've used unusual devices, like the peons in the industrial houses serving as sutradhars, just like the chauffeurs in Page 3."

The cola-and-food war story was devised by a creative team who studied the real-life internecine struggles between corporate houses before zeroing in on this project.

"Corporate was the most difficult film to make. I had to walk a tightrope to keep the proceedings on an even keel. Chandni Bar and Page 3 could have become totally sleazy or spoofy. My films always have a human angle.

That's true of Corporate more than any of my films. I feel a huge growth in my as a filmmaker. I was warned against making a film about a theme that doesn't have universal appeal.

'Who'd want to see a film on the corporate world?' I was advised to shoot a love story abroad. But all my films are Mumbai -based. I find endless stories to tell in this city. I see no reason to step out of the city.

While interacting with people for Page 3 I came across lots of people from the corporate world. So I got the idea for making Corporate while making Page 3.

The jargon, the trade talk, the give-and-take of idea in the industrial world were all new to me. I got friends of mine from the corporate world to contribute."

The film has cameos by real-life celebrities like Javed Akhtar, Prahlad Kakkar and Ashok Pandit.

He's all praise for his actors. "Bipasha Basu will be taken very seriously after this movie. People will love her performance as Nishigandha Dasgupta. Every actor from KK to Sammir Dattani is in-character.

Everyone on the sets, 40-50 characters behaved like one big family. This is my first film in eighteen months. Of course I feel I could've made Corporate better. But I'm very happy with it."