Until a few months ago, it looked like Sunil Shetty's Popcorn Entertainment was seriously reconsidering the idea of continuing with its production plans. But that is history with the company going ahead with several projects.

Recently, the company signed directors Anubhav Sinha and Onir Bann for two of its forthcoming projects. This is in addition to three other films, which are currently under negotiation with leading names in the industry.

The decision was apparently made after producer Sohail Maklai took over as director, production, in the company, after parting ways with Nitin Manmohan.

"The business of films is looking up now and we saw no reason to hold ourselves back," said Popcorn CEO Prakash Khubchandani.

According to Khubchandani, the earliest film to go on the floors will be the one with Anubhav Sinha, which will begin in January 2006. This will start along with another film directed by Priyadarshan, which Popcorn is producing in association with Shri Ashtavinayak Cine Vision.

"In fact, we are looking at producing four films a year. This is in addition to our other business diversification plans," Khubchandani added.

Popcorn has produced two films so far, "Khel" and "Rakht", both of which did not meet with the expected response at the box office.