/> Currently on top of the world for the surprise success of his latest release Khosla Ka Ghosla, Anupam Kher has a lot more reason to smile.

"Tanuja Chandra's English –language film Hope & A Little Sugar which opens the South -Asian International Film Festival in New York, and Shirish Kunder's Jaan-e-Mann which closes the festival, both feature me in the cast. There's more. In Tanuja's film I play a Sardarji whose family is a victim of 9/11. In Shirish's film I'm cast as a dwarf."

This is the first time since Kamal Haasan's Appu Raja that a mainstream actor has been cast as a dwarf. "I won't tell you how I played the dwarf. But I didn't stand in a trench to look short. It was far more complicated."

Anupam is all praise for Shirish. "Jaan-e-Mann is a very rare kind of directorial debut. Shirish has invented a new language for cinema. And it's so wonderful that he's finally being given his due. For long he was too shy and withdrawn for people to recognize him. Nowadays you push yourself, or you get pushed out."

Anupam loves to work with new talent. "Dibakar Banerjee had to go through a long period of struggle to make Khosla Ka Ghosla. All of us actors were with him right through. We had to make sure that the film got released. And our perserverance has paid off. In spite of all odds Khosla... is a hit. I wish it was taken to international festivals."

Regretfully Anupam won't be in New York for his double whammy when Hope & A Little Sugar and Jaan-e-Mann will be screened from Oct 6. "A prior commitment on television in Mumbai prevents me from attending. That's sad. Not too many actors get a chance to be in the opening and closing film of a festival."