In Tera Kya Hoga Johnny, Sudhir again returns to his favourite creative haunt, the streets of Mumbai. "I've done films on Mumbai earlier. It's in the mood of my Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin and Dharavi. It's set at a time when Mumbai wants to be Shanghai. Who gives a shit about a street kid named Johnny who sells coffee on the streets of the cruel city?"

The 13-year old protagonist is played by Sikandar, who was one of the main characters in a film called Shadows Of Time. "It was a strange film by a German director Florian Gallenberger in Bengali. My casting director saw Sikandar and he was on." The film will have live songs. "We'll have film songs that the protagonist Johnny likes played and sung impromptu."

This is the first time that Sudhir Mishra is directing a film with a child in the lead. "You can't over-direct a child. Let him be. His emotional responses come from within. Nowadays, the calibre of child actors has truly improved." Sudhir Mishra's film also has Neil Mukesh, Karan Nath, K.K. Menon and Sudhir's favourite leading lady, Soha Ali Khan.

Exults Sudhir, "Soha is wonderful. She comes so well-prepared on the sets. And once my Khoya Khoya Chand releases, Soha would really have arrived." The release of the film has been postponed. "It's now 14th December. We can't compete with Saawariya and Om Shanti Om as far as the number of prints and theatres are concerned. We want to give Khoya Khoya Chand a big release. It's not an intimate film like my earlier films. It's an epic of sorts."

The film also stars two filmmakers, Anurag Kashyap and Aditya Bhattacharya. "I had earlier cast Aditya as a politician in Hazaar Khwaishen Aisi." The shooting of Pritish Nandy Communications Devdas now begins in Novemeber. Chandramukhi is yet to be cast. "The actress who signs on will have to trust me to create substantial space for her, just as Madhuri Dixit trusted Sanjay Bhansali."

Courtesy: IndiaFM