What has kept the evergreen Dev Anand ticking during his six eventful decades in the Hindi film industry as a star and a filmmaker is his enduring romance with life.

"Romance is a passionate involvement and excitement with whatever you are doing in life," he said at the release of his autobiography, Romancing With Life, here last weekend.

Romance, in this sense, could be with anything, he said. "Satyajit Ray had one with poverty."

Talking about his book, first released in India last month by Penguin Viking, which is already into its second edition, Dev Anand said, "My life has been an open book. I have written honestly about what has stood out in the forefront of my memory."

He has not glossed over his doomed relationship with Suraiya -- co-star of his early films whose Muslim family did not accept him -- or other flings. Nor over his flirtation with Indian politics and the Janata Party which came to power after the emergency in 1977, which he had opposed.

"Writing an autobiography is tough," he said, "because you have to rip open your self to the world."

The book charts his coming to Bombay to become an actor from Lahore at the age of 19, his rise to stardom, his compatriots Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor, his split with brother Chetan Anand, with whom he had Navketan Films, his heroines and 'discoveries' from Zeenat Aman to Tina Munim (now Ambani).

Dev Anand said he didn't want a biography despite publishers and writers chasing him. "I told them, you know me only from my films, where I am mostly chasing the girls."

Romancing With Life is the only autobiographical work by a film personality of Dev Anand's stature who has starred in over 150 films and directed more than a dozen.

Fielding questions from the audience at the function organised by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he confirmed that he was planning to release the English version of his film "Guide", scripted by famous author Pearl Buck -- which had not done well when originally released in the US.

He also said that in the Hindi version of "Guide", now counted among the greatest Hindi films, the adultery angle had to be watered down and justified.

Asked how he reacts to his films in recent years doing badly at the box office and being panned by the critics, Dev Anand said without flinching, "They came out of my head, and did well for me".

Now 84, he keeps getting excited by new ideas for films and is ready to shoot his new film "When Heartbeats Are the Same" in Europe.

Both filmmaker Mira Nair and Indian Consul General Neelam Deo who spoke at the function said they have been Dev Anand's fans.

Nair said she was told when younger that she looked like Zeenat Aman. "So I consciously cultivated that look then," she said.

Deo said Dev Anand's two most memorable films -- "Guide" and "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" -- also had a social message. "Dev Saab is a living treasure of India", she concluded.