/> After the much talked-about Race the quietly-efficient directorial duo Abbas-Mustan are taking a sabbatical.

Says the softspoken Abbas,"We're scripting two films at the moment. But for now after the release of Race we've just one film the comedy Mr Fraud to complete. That got delayed because of various reasons including Sanjay Dutt's dates.

We're going to complete the film this year as soon as we get Sanju's and Ajay Devgan's dates. Bipasha who plays the lead will of course accommodate us. She has been our leading lady in her first film. And now she's part of Race."

Abbas-Mustan are very excited about getting a chance to work with Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy for the first time.

"There are so professional. Race belongs to a genre we're identified with —the suspense thriller. But very different in subject and treatment.

We'd welcome a hit because our last film Naqaab didn't do well. We feel Naqaab was ahead of its times."

The big leap forward for Abbas-Mustan in 2008 is production. "We're going full-throttle ahead with producing films," informs Abbas.

"We've signed three directors. The writer Rumi Jaffrey, Rohit Jugraj (who has just made a film called Superstar and came to us with a brilliant script) and Nishikant Kamath who made the brilliant Dombivali Fast in Marathi."

Dombivali Fast been done in Tamil by the same director with Madhavan in the lead.

"Yes, it has," concedes Abbas. "But we're committed to do the Hindi version for a long time because we really like the subject."

The Hindi version of Dombivali Fast will star an unknown face. "The film requires a common man and a character whom the audience can easily identify with. A star just won't do," Abbas signs off.