/> Suddenly Farhan is very excited about the amount of talent that his production house is nurturing. He talks about his plans for Don 2, etc.

What do you think of Rajpal Yadav spoofing Don in Partner?
I've no issues with that. The more people do to keep both the Dons alive, mine and Mr Bachchan's, the happier I am.

Which Don do you prefer?
The old one. It's my love for the old Don that made made me do my version of Don. If today someone asked me which Don I'd like to watch I'd opt for the version with Mr Bachchan.

What about talk of you doing a sequel to Don?
Yes there's something I am working on with Shah Rukh. Let's see when it materializes. I am very fascinated by the character of Don. I want to see where he goes in a sequel.

If I can carry him forward and make him more powerful than in the first part, then I'd go ahead and make it. He's a very interesting and magnetic flamboyant larger-than-life character who thinks he can get away with anything.

Will it have Shah Rukh and Priyanka?
Only Shah Rukh is so far a pre-given in the cast.

Will it have Mallika Sherawat?
No.

Are you writing Don 2?
Well... the first part was written by my dad and Salim Saab. This time the writing would be entirely mine. I didn't want to divert too far from the original in Don 1. In Don 2 I'll write on a clean slate with no rules to follow. The journey from a remake to a sequel should be interesting.

You seem more charged now than ever before?
There's more emphasis being placed on the writing. There're lots of talented young writers around.I get a lot of exciting scripts to read these days. We always said we wanted to bring in new writing and directorial talent right into our production house from the time I made Dil Chahta Hai.

From that time six years ago to today, there's a sea change in the kind of script that are coming to us.

Did you remake Don because there was an aridity of script-writing talent?
No. Even the script that I'm going to direct with Irrfan Khan in the lead called Voice From The Sky was something I wrote immediately after Dil Chahta Hai. At that time I didn't feel it was the correct time to make it. Since I've to direct children in it I had to be mentally prepared for the challenge.

Today the film market has changed. Now is the right time to make Voice From The Sky. If I had made it right after Dil Chahta Hai it wouldn't have found the right outlets. There were no multiplexes back then.

Dil Chahta Hai was quite a trendsetter.
I don't know about that. I really don't know how far the trend is imbibed consciously. There was a character in a film called Wayne's World who was totally infatuated by Wayne though he couldn't bear to be around her. That must have remained in my mind when I did a similar character Deepa in Dil Chahta Hai.

But yes when I saw Apoorva Lakhia's Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost I did recognize elements from Lagaan in it. I'm sure films do influence our minds in ways that we do not always understand.