His directorial debut "My Wife's Murder" has just hit the box-office, but 29-year-old Jijy Philip is already on to his next film - again with Ram Gopal Varma.

"I have been working with Varma for the last five years and the only thing we discuss is films. It's work, work and work. I must admit that my association with him has made me focused," Philip, a former TV journalist, told here.

The director, who has assisted Varma in much applauded films like "Jungle", "Company", "Road" and "Bhoot", is now busy preparing for his next venture, "Shock". Varma will produce the film.

"I have learnt that to make a project successful one needs to be clear about one's plan. Direction is not only about the number of films done but also about being sure of your work.

"The association has also taught me to understand the emotion of the characters and choose the casting accordingly."

The commerce graduate said in spite of all this, Varma never tries to interfere. "We used to work to the best of our ability without any intervention. It's all about looking at the subject a little differently."

Speaking about his experience of making "My Wife's Murder", which stars Anil Kapoor, he said the preparation was one of the biggest challenges as it was his debut film.

"Definitely, the film was a challenge for me and the final draft of the script was prepared after working on it for six months. The film that is on view today is the 12th draft of the original script.

"The script was good, but I along with my script writer tried to delve deep into the mind of Ravi Patwardhan, the protagonist. Both of us worked on all kinds of psychological details possible and tried to incorporate them into the film," said Philip who switched to filmmaking from TV journalism.

"I enjoyed my two years' career in journalism. But that has nothing to do with my present life. There is no point looking back and the effort is to do more films and understand the medium."