/> Piyush Jha Piyush Jha (not be mistaken for Piyush Mishra) started his career with a youth flick Chalo America (1999). A small budget film, it was a light hearted take on the fascination that millions of youngsters have for America. The film's cast was led by Ashish Chaudhary who was pretty much a young boy then. Piyush followed it up with the Bollywood satire King of Bollywood (2004) which was about this aging evergreen hero (played by Om Puri) who refused to face reality and call it a day in showbiz.

5 years after the release of King of Bollywood, Piyush changes genre once again and comes up with Sikandar, which as per him is a quintessential Bollywood commercial fare but boasts of a meaningful story that he believes in.

Also, his protagonists this time around are teenage children - Parzan Dastur (of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai fame) and Ayesha Kapur (of Black fame).

Considering the fact that Sikandar comes with an intense story due to which working with children may have been quite difficult, how did he explain certain complex situations and happenings to the kids?

"I would not like to call them kids, they are young adults", he sets records straight right away, "I am lucky to have leads which are intelligent actors. Parzan is sixteen actually but he looks younger.

But all the kids now days are very accepting and understanding of situations that are beyond their age. And there are few areas that they are more knowledgeable than I am, especially computers."

Piyush Jha Though the film has children in the lead, Sikandar isn't essentially a children's film. Since the film has a disturbing backdrop, how appropriate is it for the kids to watch the film?

"The subject is very relevant for both kids and adults; especially kids as it directly affect them", says Piyush. "The young minds today are forced to do things which are not of their understanding. It's very important to understand why they are lured off from the path of good.

Firstly, it was only in war affected areas like Kashmir but now it is happening in other small towns of India too. So for me it became more important to have kids as protagonists and it's important for the parents to see the film and understand their kids better."

He goes on to add, "Yes, Sikandar deals with violence, but the central theme of the film is that of peace. The film does not have a jingoistic or partisan point of view, and does not take sides, except the side of humanity."

Also starring R. Madhavan, Sanjay Suri and Arunoday Singh in principal roles, Sikandar is co-produced by Sudhir Mishra and is looking at 27th March release.