"Forget the international labels, it's always Manish for me," says the Malhotra loyalist Urmila Matondkar. "I'm sure he'll make me look good when I walk the red carpet tomorrow at the Dubai film festival."

Urmila is at the airport in Mumbai bright and early on Sunday morning. "I keep missing out on these international festivals. I was invited to be on the jury for the Singapore Film Festival in the last week of November. But my dates clashed with Harry Baweja's film. Since I had combination dates with Aftab Shivdasani, Zayed Khan and Sanjay Suri I couldn't fly off for even a day...Then earlier this month I missed taking Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (MGKNM) to the film festival in Pakistan. This time I wasn't going to miss Dubai for the world."

The actress is on the verge of signing two new films with director Onirban and Anurag Basu. "Though I've in principle said yes to both it's a little premature to announce them as yet. Anurag Basu and his writer Sanjeev Dutta are both very sweet and will be good to work with. But I need to resolve a couple of issues before I say a funal yes...In the meanwhile Dubai here I come. The red carpet is tomorrow and then the film will be screened."

Urmila is accompanied to Dubai with MGKNM director Jahnu Barua. The shy director seems content with the inroads his first Hindi film has made. "Actually I never expected a Gandhian film to go so far. It has been screened in Pakistan ...and now Dubai. In fact I think it made far more money than I expected to."

Now Jahnu Barua is ready with his second film in Hindi The Butterfly Chase for a company called 7even Entertainment. "I'm glad I'm no longer known as a regional filmmaker," he laughs.

Adds Urmila, "Jahnu Bhai is much too self-effacing. On his set a guest had to look three times to know the man sitting quietly in the corner was the director. Filmmakers from the non-Hindi areas need to be far more assertive of their talents."