/> One thing that can be said for sure about the Big B's films with Rani Mukherjee is that they offer project the actors in very unusual, exceedingly unconventional combinations.

In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black they played the amazingly unorthodox teacher and pupil. And in Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna the Big B played the philandering Sexy Sam who tells his daughter-in-law to leave his son so he can find love.

Now in Baabul the Big B and Rani play the protagonists. A father-in-law who's determined to get his widowed daughter-in-law remarried. So pivotal are the two characters that Hema Malini who plays the Big B's wife, confesses she has relatively little to do.

Speaking on his acutely striking bonding with Rani the Big B says, "We've been cast in very unsusual roles in Black. And then in KANK we were a very different kind of father-in-law and daughter-in-law. And now we play another very different and unusual father-in-law and daughter-in-law in Baabul.

I guess we're lucky to have our acting talents being tested in such unusual ways. I'm very fortunate to get such unusual opportunities. Rani is a terrific co-star and it's a pleasure to work with her. All of us—Jaya, Abhishek and I-- are very fond of her."

He recalls Rani's concern for his health on the sets. "She's a very caring girl. And a thorough professional on camera."

Baabul is up for release and the Big B is hoping it would have the same social impact as the director Ravi Chopra's earlier AB starrer Baghban.

Says the Big B, "Though it in -sync sound it needs some dubbing, I think it has turned out to be a film that reclaims many of our basic values...like Vivah which I thought was a very sweet film.

It just took me back to the days of innocence when romance was about exchanging looks ...Baabul is also a film that's embedded in our ethos and culture, though the issue here (widow rehabilitation) is far more serious."

The Big B is on the verge of completing Balkrishnan's Cheeni Kam with Tabu. "Balki wants to do another film with me. I've Bhootnath for producer Ravi Chopra. Then Abhishek and I will be doing Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar 2. Then I also have films with Rakeysh Mehra and Shojeet Sarkar."

But it's Baabul that's up next. "And the interesting thing about it is that the seeds of its plot were sown in Sholay many years ago...The relationship Rani shares with me does have similarities to what Jaya shared with Sanjeev Kumar in Sholay."