It's got to be the season of Amitabh Bachchan, in more ways than one. First Don, then Sholay, now another major filmmaker is all set to remake another mega-Bachchan blockbuster from the 1970s.

Even as Farhan Akhtar gets down to the serious pre-production plans for his remake of Don, with Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra in the lead, and Ram Gopal Varma girds up his loins to remake Sholay "quicker than you'd imagine," David Dhawan has made up his mind to do his own version of yet another Bachchan blockbuster.

"I'm going to remake Amar Akbar Anthony," reveals the man who launched a thousand laughs. "Why not? If Farhan and Ramu can remake their favourite films, why not me? I've been living with the idea of doing my own Amar Akbar Anthony for years. Manmohan Desai, as you know, was my guru. I learnt filmmaking from him. And my style of filmmaking is akin to his. I kept postponing my dream project. But now I'm going to do it within a year."

And the casting? How about Abhishek Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna and Ranbir Kapoor in the roles immortalised by their fathers Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna and Rishi Kapoor?

Laughs Dhawan. "No nothing as gimmicky as that. My cast will be completely different, though unlike Ramu's Sholay, my AAA won't have newcomers. I'll work with established stars My only problem is, where do I relocate the original plot? Ramu is taking Sholay out of Chambal valley into Mumbai. AAA is situated in Mumbai. Where do I take it?"

He sighs, "This will be the guru-dakshina to my Dronacharya. Manmohan Desai was indeed the guru of entertainment. You can see shades of his humour even in my latest film Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya."