No Yash Raj for Do Dooni Chaar's director

It seems strange that Habib Faizal, the director of this week's much-acclaimed film Do Dooni Chaar, made his directorial debut away from his homeground, the Yash Raj banner. So what made Faisal, who has written a number of films for Yash Raj Films (including Siddharth Anand's Tara Ram Pum and Shaad Ali's Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom) choose Planman Films as the producer?

The softspoken director who studied at Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia University, says, "I could've easily made my first film with Adi. He's guided me through every stop of Do Dooni Chaar."

He continues, "When I was ready to direct my first film, Adi was completely consumed by Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. There was no way I could slip my own film into the banner. I can go back and direct another film for Yash Raj any time I want. In fact, I've also written their film Band Baja Baraat, which is being directed by my friend Maneesh Sharma."

To us, though, the similarity between Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Do Dooni Chaar (both are set in a Punjabi milieu and the protagonist was a working class Punjabi on a scooter) seems to have led Faisal to approach another producer. But Faizal is not the first director to take his project elsewhere when it clashed with Aditya Chopra's film. Adi's production New York had a plotline similar to best friend Karan Johar's production Kurbaan. Apparently, Johar chose to delay his film.

What's next? Faizal hasn't decided. "My next film certainly won't be on the life of doctors, engineers or call-centre workers. I don't want to become the Arthur Hailey of filmmaking," he says emphatically.