/>To Vishal, Gulzar Saab is a mentor and father-figure and his daughter Meghna the kid sister he never had.

"And today Bosky (Meghna) has done me proud.I'm so happy by her work in Dus Kahaniyaan. I want to produce a film for her."

Vishal is all for the episodic storytelling. "I've just made a short-film Blood Brothers for Mira Nair. And believe me it was an exhilarating challenge. I've also made a feature film The Blue Umbrella out of a short story.

As a feature film is stretching it a bit. I'd rather made short films from short stories as Sanjay Gupta has done. In fact if Sanjay makes a sequel to Dus Kahaniyaan I'd love to be part of it."

Vishal gets nostalgic about the short-story format. "I started my career as filmmaker after being inspired by Kieslowski's short story collection Dekalogue.

It was Gulzar Saab who introduced me to those ten short films. Even today we watch them together whenever we're low...That's why I love Dus Kahaniyaan. Hats off to Sanjay Gupta for getting the stars to give clout to his experiment.

I loved Matrimony and Bosky's Pooranmashi. I'm very proud of her. In fact I'm willing to produce a film for her."

He admires Bosky for rendering literature on celluloid. "In fact I took up Shakespeare for Omkara because I didn't have the guts to write an original screenplay, nor did I want to pick up a foreign DVD. I don't know why. But in our country literature is considered boring and preachy."

Interestingly Vishal also features in Dus Kahaniyan. "I've written the story High On Highway featuring Jimmy Sheirgil and Masumeh. It was earlier made by me for Zee TV with Ashish Vidyarthi and Shefali Shah. This was the first story I had ever written."

How did it now land up as part of Dus Kahaaniyan ? "Hansal Mehta (who directs the film in Dus Kahaniyan) is a dear friend. I was thrilled when he wanted to make the film.

I wanted to re-write the screenplay since it was written fifteen years ago. But before I knew it, Hansal had already shot the story. I was surprised when my name appeared on the posters.

But Hansal is a friend and I'm glad he did it...though I must admit if I had to remake the same story now I'd do it differently. But I'm happy with what Hansal has done with my story."

He lights up at the impact of his own short-film on AIDS. " Blood Brothers was great fun to make.I'd love to do more short films.

So many things have to be said in such a short span of time, like in an ad film. It takes the energy of a full feature film. Blood Brothers took up the whole of last year. It's my maturest work to date.

In fact I had offered to make a segment of Darna Manaa Hai for Ram Gopal Varma."