/> You could argue that one of Asia's most honest and transparent actors Naseeruddin Shah has been acting with puppets (of the human variety) all his career.

But now the business of puppet acting is going to take on a more literal hue for Naseeruddin Shah.

He's all set to act with real puppets in a television show called The Magic Tent.

"That's right," says the actor-extraordinaire who has just returned from London after filming Jagmohan Mundhra's Shoot On Sight.

"It's being produced by the same people who have been doing Sesame Street—the world's most avidly watched show for children—for the past 47 years. All the characters will be puppets. And the puppeteers will be the same people who are behind Sesame Street.

I'll be the only human character on the show."says the actor-extraordinaire who along with his wife Ratna Pathak gave voice to a pair of puppets in Amol Palekar's Paheli.

"That's right. There I was a puppet. Now I'll be the only human character among puppets," says Naseer about the desi Sesame Street whose pilot he has just shot for. "The episodes will be canned in February."

This is Naseer's second major foray into television. "My first was with Gulzar Saab on Doordarshan twenty years ago. I look back on our collaboration for Mirza Ghalib with much nostalgia and affection.

I'd love to get together with Gulzar Saab again. But for now the thought of doing an Indian Sesame Street excites me greatly. There're no intelligent programmes for children on television."

More excitement for the auteur. Naseer returns to stage again with his wife Ratna. "It's a rendering of the play Antigone who was was the daughter of Oedipus. Ratna plays Antigone. And no, I don't play Oedipus. I've already done that. I play the part of Antigone's uncle."

The play will be directed by Satyadev Dubey.

"When you say I'll RETURN to stage with Antigone I don't agree with you. I've never been away from stage. A year-and-a-half ago I did Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet on stage. To me theatre is an enchanting extension of cinema. Only more fun."