/> If all goes well, Rahul Bose will be directing his second feature film after the well-received Everybody Says I'm Fine four years ago.

It would be a screen adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's 2000 debut novel Moth Smoke. Reluctant to talk about it Rahul finally relents. "It's right now too early to talk about this.

I'm co-writing the screenplay with a writer in Los Angeles-- a very close friend of mine Satish Menon, and Nishar Modi. The final draft would be ready by 15 May. One international and two Indian producers have shown interest in the project. But it's much too early to name them.

There're many slips between the cup and the lip. And I don't want to be just one of those people who discuss projects and move on."

At the moment Rahul has paid for the filming rights of Moth Smoke from his own pocket. "My three producers were willing to pool in the money to buy the rights. But I wasn't comfortable with that deal. I'd like to have full creative control over the project."

What Rahul loved about the book is that it's both about love and hatred. "It's a love and hate triangle, incredibly plausible on both levels.

The challenge it to take the micro aspect of the novel on screen to the macro level. The exuberance of Everybody Says I'm Fine will be curbed."

Getting the rights of the book wasn't really a problem in spite of it being by a Pakistani novelist.

About his long absence from filmmaking, Rahul says, "Ideally I'd have loved to direct another film much earlier.

Perversely, I've taken that time to do the maximum number of films including Kaal Purush, Anuronan, The Whisperers, Before The Rains and now Aparna Sen's The Japanese Wife. I've never done so many films before."

Rahul Bose is filming Aparna Sen's The Japanese Wife in Kolkata. "It's been the toughest role of my career. The whole notion of doing something I've never done before is scary. The layers in the character are hardly visible.

And I can't let the character's confusions show on screen. It's very international in texture....Latin American in flavour. Like some of Ray's film The Japanese Wife belongs to world cinema."