by Subhash K Jha

He has quietly gone and completed his first directorial venture. That fabulous much-missed actor Amjad Khan's son Shadaab Khan made his debut as a leading man opposite Rani Mukherjee in Raja Ki Aayeagi Baraat. Later he was also seen in a villainous role in J.P. Dutta's Refugee.

But Shadaab has left his acting aspirations behind. "What keenly interests me is script writing. I have twenty scripts ready. In fact one of them Sandhya was made with Jackie Shroff and Raveena Tandon in the lead.

The film never got released, though its director Sangeeth Sivan has become belatedly successful with Kya Kool Hain Hum. I wish him all the best," says the newly-mellowed Shadaab.

Perhaps marriage has something to do with it. "Yeah I've been married for six months to Romona, a girl I knew in school and lost touch with. When her name came up for marriage I immediately recognized her. I'm far more calm now. Calm ki baatein karen?" he puns with a laugh.

Shadaab has completed a thriller called Highway 203. "Thrillers are my chosen genre. Sandhya which I wrote was one. And now I've directed one. My producer Prince Dendona and I were both keen on the title 'The Accident' since Highway 203 is centred around an accident."

The film, ready for release in February, stars K.K Menon and Perizaad Zorabian. "It was originally meant to feature Naseeruddin Shah and Tabu. Tabu showed great interest ...and then vanished without a trace!

Mr Shah one fine day got his secretary to inform me he isn't doing the film...But that's okay. The goodwill that my father generated died with him. I don't expect anyone to be nice to me just because I'm my father's son.

No one can say I've made Highhway 203 on my father's steam. I'm glad I got K K and Perizaad. KK is an astonishing actor. And Perizaad who plays a very bad aspiring actress, was a surprise."

Arif Zakaria is also part of the cast.

"It isn't a big film in terms of budget. But I wouldn't like to call it a small film. I believe I've made a good film." Next....a big-budgeted star-centric glossy.

"Of course it will be a thiller. I want to cast my friends Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Zayed Khan...They will all happily agree to be in my film. Zayed is a childhood friend. He can never say no to me."

Shall we bet on that?