Joginder Tuteja, Bollywood Trade News Network

Though one waits to see how Upen Patel has managed to make his presence felt in MONEY HAI TO HONEY HAI which so far seems to have been dominated by Govinda from first till the last frame in spite of presence of Aftab Shivdasani, Celina Jaitley, Manoj Bajpai and Hansika Motwani, the young man has reasons to keep smiling. He has been signed by Bajaj brothers for MR. ROMEO, the shooting for which is expected to kick start pretty soon.

"I read the film's script and was zapped", says Upen for whom this would be his first solo venture, "In fact I hadn't even met the film's director Vishal Bhandari and had been given the script by my producers. It is a nice feel good film about a young man who is searching for true love."

For the uninitiated, Vishal Bhandari is a National award nominee who has made THE HANGMAN a couple of years back. The Om Puri, Gulshan Grover, Shreyas Talpade film has been traveling the festival circuits ever since then and is yet to see a theatrical release.

Coming back to Upen, was it the lure of starring as a solo lead which made him sign the film with a director who is yet to prove his credentials as a commercial filmmaker?

"If that was the case, I would have gone solo months back", promptly replies Upen who has so far shared screen space with Shahid Kapoor (36 CHINA TOWN), Akshay Kumar [NAMASTEY LONDON], Bobby Deol [SHAKALAKA BOOM BOOM] and Suneil Shetty/Tusshar Kapoor [ONE TWO THREE], "As I said earlier, I loved the script. And let me confess, I also loved the film's title since it goes well with my image. Imagine playing a man who keeps loving women around him."

Talking about women, Upen seems to be surrounding by a handful of them in MR. ROMEO, isn't it?

"Yes, there are going to be four lovely ladies. The actresses who would enact these roles are yet to be finalized though and the makers of the film are working on getting the right faces in place. The film is indeed global since the women who come in my life would hail from places like Italy, France, Austria and also India."

Are there going to be any names from the West involved?

"No, each of these women would be India. However, they would all be today's women and carry a hot-n-glamorous look", concludes Upen who would also be beginning work on Abbas-Mustan and Suneel Darshan's next films.