Rituparno Ghosh wants Kareena Kapoor to be in his "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam" but doubts if she will oblige as Priyanka Chopra is playing the main lead.

In fact, Ghosh's biggest problem right now is a new adaptation of Bimal Mitra's "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam", which he is committed to doing for Pritish Nandy Communications.

With Priyanka being finalised to play the pivotal part of Chhoti Malkin, he is very keen to have Kareena play the other female lead.

"I'd love to have Bebo play Jaba. In Guru Dutt's 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam', Meena Kumari and Waheeda Rehman represented the two faces of womanhood so beautifully. To me they are equally important characters in the drama, just like Paro and Chandrmukhi in 'Devdas'.

"I could work the same magic with Priyanka and Kareena. But will Kareena work with Priyanka after 'Aitraaz'?"

As for the two male leads, the producers are keen on Vivek Oberoi and Salman Khan to do the needful. Ghosh has no issues with his producer's decision.

"I'm neck-deep in my films. My 'Antar Mahal' with Abhishek and Soha is all set for release." He is also shooting his new Bengali film with Konkona Sen and Prasenjit.

And in the middle of all this, there is trouble. "The last thing I can afford is to hear is crank callers pretending to be me and calling up various stars.

"Someone impersonating me kept calling Arjun Rampal. I had the cops trace the calls to the outskirts of Kolkata and a man was arrested. Now I believe John Abraham has been getting similar calls.

"John believed it was me until Bipasha heard the man's voice. Please, I don't have to call up stars to get their attention."

Though his "Antar Mahal" is in Bengali, it has an interesting and national-level cast of Abhishek and Soha. "And both Abhishek and Jackie Shroff are dressed only in a skimpy dhoti throughout.

"Whenever Abhishek came on the sets he would grumble good-naturedly that I had turned him into a pin-up boy. I don't think Abhishek has ever looked so intense and acted so quietly in any of his films.

"I agree it has a nationwide market. How, its release depends entirely on the film's right-holders, AB Corp Ltd and Vashu Bhagnani."

Incidentally, AB Corp is also producing "Viruddh", featuring Abhishek and Soha's parents.

Ghosh is also planning two projects with Amitabh Bachchan. One will feature Shabana Azmi and Aishwarya Rai.