/> After Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee the prolific Vikram Bhatt intends to take a long holiday from filmmaking In what he calls his only completely original film to date Vikram Bhatt had a peculiar problem.

"In Life Mein Kabhi Kabhie you could say I bit more than I could chew. Rather, I shot more than I could show. I had to trim the film down to 2 hours and 20 minutes. Since each of the five protagonists has his own story to tell it was tough deciding what to take out."

Vikram finally decided to do away with a lot of important scenes. "Every one of the protagonists lost vital scenes. According to me Sammir Dattani was the band mutthi of the film. We had to sacrifice his love angle.

We took out all his romantic scenes. So yeah, Sammir was the only hero in the film without a romantic angle. Since he played a brooder, fighting his demons within I wanted him to come across as a loner. In any case heroes don't HAVE to have romantic leads any more. That kind of conventional coupling is dead now.

Life Mein .... Projected a new age and a new thought. It's my most contemporary film to date. I'm still baffled as to why it didn't get an audience."

He's all praise for the cast. "It was a tightly-budgeted 45-day schedule and they all got into their roles immediately. Also, we didn't shoot in sequence. And yet they got into character comfortably."

Every protagonist has a bit of Vikram in him or her. "I guess after Ankahee all my cinema has become autobiographical. I've gone through some of what all my protagonists in Life Mein... go through.

At 38 I see the need to look back in my life and also revise my attitude to cinema. See, despite all the technical advancement even today it's a good story that sells. And that's where Life Mein Kabhi Kabhie scores. Some of my recent films fell short in the plot department.

Life Mein... was my most original work ever. Not a moment is derivative. I used to say no art is ever original. In Life Mein.... I've completely disproved my own myth. In Life Mein... I can proudly say there was s nothing that the audience has seen before. And yet they didn't turn up to see the film. It's very confusing for a filmmaker. "

Vikram shot the entire film in one stretch. " That's the only way to make a film now. If a film with as big a cast as Life Mein ... stretches on the heroes could grow their hair, or beards....or just lose interest. what do you do? After Ankahee this was my first film to be completed at a stretch.

Every protagonist's role was so well etched. Here everyone was comfortable on the sets. No ego hassles. Insecurity creeps in among the actors only when some of them have hazy roles."

Speaking of which, what about the sequel to Raaz that Mahesh Bhatt has been threatening us with?

"I'm certainly not doing it," asserts Vikram. " Raaz just happened. You can't replicate that formula. In Raaz we didn't create a franchise like Munnabhai or Dhoom. A sequel to Raaz is not possible"