After a three year long sabbatical, former Mr. India Bikram Saluja has caught eyeballs once again with his skilful portrayal of a social-climbing film actor in Madhur Bhandarkar's "Page 3".

And now with the film garnering rave reviews, Bikram hopes filmmakers will finally recognise his talent.

"I never got a big launch. I thought if I conduct myself with dignity and do my work well I'd be noticed. Now I realise it wasn't the way to do it. Marketing is as important as working hard," tells Bikram, who was also seen in "Plan" and "LOC".

"Konkona Sensharma for all her talent is only considered good enough for a small-budget film. If it's a Rs.100 million project they'll straightaway think of big stars," said Bikram, who started his acting career with "Fiza" where he starred opposite Karisma Kapoor.

"Every producer says I'm good. But I don't have a repertoire of films to speak for me. How can I prove myself until I get a chance? At the end of the day an actor is a puppet. I just hope some filmmaker notices my sincerity."

After "Fiza", Bikram was nowhere to be seen, as two of his films "Roshni" and "Panchi" were shelved.

"I was working, my films weren't," Bikram said.

"'Plan' could've been a re-launch. Now with 'Page 3', I got noticed, when in fact I thought I'd be lost among so many actors.

"When I heard the script I realised it's an ensemble film, but well worth being part of the director's collective characterisations," said Bikram, calling the film his "right vehicle", despite it having national award winner Konkona Sensharma as the central character.

"When I saw the film I was very pleasantly surprised. I never thought Madhur would be so successful at weaving all the sub-plots together. To rip apart the elite and then still make the audience sympathetic to these superficial people is no small task. But Madhur really managed it," he said.

Bikram would next be seen in a film called "Limit", directed by K.S. Adhiyaman, who earlier made "Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam" starring Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit.

"He has to be good to pull off such a casting coup," he said.

His other upcoming flick is opposite former beauty queen Neha Dhupia, but Bikram is quick to dispel any misconceptions.

"It isn't a skin flick," he said hastily, adding, "I'm not shy about stripping. I'm willing to take my clothes off if the script requires. But I won't do it just to show my muscles."

Bhandarkar's film "Page 3", which is a take on Mumbai's sleazy, yet slick social circles, exposes a host of problems, right from paedophile scandals to open homosexual advances, faced by the city's movers and shakers beneath their glossy lifestyles.

"Some critics are squeamish about paedophilia and other things shown in 'Page 3'. But it happens on the beaches of Goa all the time. I think it's very important to create social awareness through cinema," Bikram said.

Agreeing that there's a lot of exploitation in Bollywood as depicted by the film, he said, "What's shown in 'Page 3' is true. But the casting couch works both ways. No one is forced to sleep around. I've never been treated badly. It's up to the individual how he handles it."

Being a struggler does he identify with Tara Sharma's character?

Bikram shakes his head. "Please don't forget, I was a known face in modelling. So I wasn't an entire nonentity. I never had to wait for hours to meet producers."