Revathy has forever fought against being slotted. Today, after directing two thoroughly distinctive films "Mitr: My Friend" and now the widely-discussed "Phir Milenge", which deals with AIDS, Revathy is seen as a female filmmaker of formidable potential.

While making "Phir Milenge", Revathy, labelled the Shabana Azmi of the south, wanted a larger audience; hence her decision to include Salman Khan, Shilpa Shetty and Abhishek Bachchan.

"Without them 'Phir Milenge' would've been critically acclaimed, gone into festivals and that's it. I wanted a larger audience. I had to put in the stars to attract the audience," tells Revathy.

She is full of praise for Salman, her co-star in "Love". "He didn't think of his star image, remuneration... Nothing! He's such a wonderful human being. He didn't want money. But I insisted on a token sum. He made me write the cheque to a charitable institution."

Talking about her film with a woman as the central character she says," My first film "Mitr" also had a female protagonist played by Shobana. "Phir Milenge" couldn't be possible without Shilpa. We hardly get woman-oriented films and Shilpa carried it off so beautifully.

I've to admit there're large bits of me in Shilpa's character. Will she get awards? I hope so. They're amazing, inspiring. But I learnt very young as an actress that you shouldn't work towards them.