Subhash K Jha

Ananth Mahadevan's producer has decided to schedule his film Aksar alongside Suneel Darshan's long-delayed Mere Jeevan Saathi.

"Under normal circumstances Mere Jeevan Saathi would've been stiff competition. We can never undermine the Akshay Kumar-Suneel Darshan combination. Add to that, the Karisma Kapoor-Amisha Patel glamour quotient...This could've been a big threat to Aksar.

"Unfortunately Mere Jeevan Saathi has been inordinately delayed. It's really sad when a film comes too late. In that sense I've been lucky. All my three films have been completed on time. Aksar took just 35 days."

Ananth describes Aksar as a "pure emotional thriller". Ironically he condemns Emran Hashmi's reputation as a serial kisser, but also confesses that the film has a kissing scene between Emran and Udita Goswami.

"In fact I was very worried about it being perceived as sleazy. To my relief the Censor Board found it aesthetic."