by Subhash K Jha

The Ab Tak Chappan director Shimit Amin has moved on. From the dark film-noire mood of Ram Gopal Varma's production- factory to the light frothy feel-good ambience of Yash Chopra's cinema.

Shimit is all set to direct his second film for Yashraj Films, and that too starring Yash Chopra's blue-eyed boy Shah Rukh Khan.

Ab Tak Chappan meets Dilwale Dulhaniya?..... Not quite. "Actually," says the US-bred Shimit Amin with a yankee accent that cuts across the phone line.

"I had started a film after Ab Tak Chappan for Ram Gopal Varma called Let's Catch Verappan. But then Verappan died, the project was aborted. I left India to go back home to the US (I've family in North Carolina and Los Angeles). And now I'm back to this project."

Apparently Aditya Chopra heard the script and was bowled over. "All I can say at this point of time is that it's gonna be very very different in mood and texture from Ab Tak Chappan. Will it have songs and music? I don't know . It might. I can't say at this point of time."

Knowing Yashraj Films' penchant for secrecy Shimit seems to be walking on glass. "No no," he laughs uncomfortably. "Even if my producers weren't known to be secretive I'd have still been hesitant to discuss my new project. It's all so fresh and incomplete right now."

But a leap from Varma to Chopra surely entails a whole lot of readjustment? "Not really," Shimit corrects me shyly. "If Chappan reflected Ram Gopal Varma's cinema, I'm sure my film for Yashraj Films will definitely reflect the new , what you call posh, reality in my creative vision. But it doesn't mean my own individual creativity wouldn't matter."

"Yashraj Films is like the old studio system in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s when every production company from Paramount to MGM to Columbia made films that reflected their individual style. And yet every director, be it George Cukor, Michael Curtiz or Vincent Minelli, brought in his own reality. I hope to achieve the same synthesis of patented production style and my individual talent for this project for Yashraj Films."

Shimit seems loath to admit he has moved on from Varma's factory-formed vision. "If you say Yashraj Films is posh, so is Varma Corporation. Their films reflect a different kind of sophistication and glamour, that's all. Ab Tak Chappan wasn't a small arthouse film. It made quite an impact."

From Nana Patekar in Ab Tak Chappan to Shah Rukh Khan in Shimit Amin's new film...sounds like an interesting leap in style substance swagger and stardom.

Let's see what Shimit achieves for Yashraj Films when the film , written by Jaideep Sahni(who wrote Ram Gopal Varma's Company) commences in mid-2006.