by Subhash K Jha

Even as he gets ready to go on the floors with his version of Othello, director and music composer Vishal Bhardwaj has decided to let mentor Gulzar's daughter, Meghna, make a film out of his long-pending script for Timbuctoo.

Meghna, already scheduled to make Honeymoon, with Esha Deol will direct Timbuctoo for UTV.

Says Vishal, "I was planning Timbuctoo with Viveik and Aishwarya. I completed the first draft with Abbas Tyrewala, but when I gave it to Pankaj Kapur to read — he was supposed to do a role in the film — he saw a glaring loophole in the script, which we were too close to the subject to resolve. It was Meghna who found a solution for the tangle in my script. So I thought, why shouldn't she direct the film?"

Incidentally, Vishal and Gulzar go a long way. After R D Burman's demise, Vishal composed the music for the poet-director's Maachis, and Hu-Tu-Tu. "Gulzar saab is my inspiration and idol. And Bosky is like my baby sister," says Vishal.