Gupta's bouquet of short stories Dus Kahaniyaan promises to be unique on many levels. It's the first time that two directors, Sanjay Gupta and Hansal Mehta are directing two different segments of the same film. "One story is about Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty which I shot The other is about two kids. Towards the end of the 12-minute story the two plots merge. We shot them separately and then intercut them."

Another USP for Dus Kahaniyaan On Wednesday, two days ahead of the film's release, Gupta has blocked one whole screen at the PVR multiplex for a Q and A between students of cinema and the director's of Dus Kahaniyaan. This unprecedented brainstorming session will be preceded by a screening of Rohit Roy's Naseer-Shabana starrer Rice Plate.

Explains Gupta, "Out of the seven directors who have contributed to Dus Kahaniyaan I've selected Rohit and his film for the pow-wow at PVR simply because he's a first-timer and I want to show cine buffs that even a debutant can make a first-rate film with two of the best actors of the world. And look at the performances he has extracted from the two stalwarts!"

One filmmaker from the Dus Kahaniyaan bouquet who will be conspicuous by his absence is Apoorva Lakhia. Gupta gets surprisingly indulgent at Lakhia's mention. "Let bygones be bygones. Apu is shooting for Mission Istanbul and can't be here. He has made a quirky engaging film Sex On The Beach for Dus Kahaniyaan. And guess what? He has even made a guest appearance at the end of his film .Nothing is permanent in this industry. No friendship, no enmity. I won't rule out Apu making another film for my company White Feathers."

Gupta is exceptionally gung-ho about Dus Kahaniyaan. "On Sunday night I saw the entire bouquet of films with my team. When the first story ended and second began I was a little uneasy by the sudden shift. After all, for 40 years of my life I've seen the cinematic narrative unfolding in a particular way. But by the third story I was totally in the groove. By the fifth story nobody wanted an interval. Dus Kahaniyaan gives us another way of making and watching films. It's like this. All our life we've poured daal over our rice. I'm telling you to reverse the process. The food is the same."