/> He has so far played urbane slightly flummoxed characters in almost all his films.

But now it's time for Riteish Deshmukh to get seriously exotic for Sujoy Ghosh's Aladdin & the Mystery Of The Lamp.

Riteish is slightly shy to talk about this precious project. " I don't know what plans Sujoy and (producer) Rohan Sippy have about my looks. It could be totally Arabian or it might be somewhat contemporary.

But it's an exciting prospect any which way...It has always been a childhood fantasy to have my own genie to make my wishes come true. And what better wish-fulfilment than Mr Bachchan as a genie?"

What truly delighted Riteish was the director's determination to sign the actor. "Sujoy told me I was his first and only choice to play Aladdin. That made me happy. It's not often than one gets a chance to be in a huge fantasy like this, and that too with Mr Bachchan as your co-star."

Earlier Riteish shared screen space with AB for a segment of Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Zaroori Hai. "But that was just a two-day shoot. And Mr Bachchan scared the hell out of me playing that eerie character. I think Alladin is the ultimate fun fantasy and the ideal vehicle to share with India's biggest superstar."

So excited is Riteish about his preparation for Alladin that he has decided to dodge all new offers for now. "I do have my friend Sajid Khan's Hey Baby. But that's it. I want to focus completely on Aladdin.

I think Sujoy and Rohan want to start the film early in 2007. It's exciting to be in a children's fantasy. Until lately Bollywood has completely ceased making films for younger audiences. Now we seem to have revived that old young feeling."

Incidentally Riteish isn't the first Bollywood actor to don an Arabian Nights avatar. Dharmendra played Alibaba in Umesh Mehra's Alibaba Aur Chalis chor, Amitabh Bachchan was an arabesque dogooder in Shashi Kapoor's Ajooba, Dharmendra and Jeetendra were dressed as Roman gladiators in Manmohan Desai's Dharam-Veer.

The question is, would a costume drama work in this day and age? The last costume drama to click was Manmohan Desai's Dharam-veer.

Major costume disasaters
Kamal Amrohi's Razia Sultan.
Raj Kumar Kohli's Raj Tilak
Pankaj Parasher's Raj Kumar