"A serial on the air means months' guaranteed work with adequate returns for the workforce. Now look at movies ... you work for three or more years and at the end of it you have just one movie to show, one production on which you are going to get only a limited amount as agreed between you and your producer," he says.

Then he adds: "Still cinema is my passion. There may be no established success formulas but it will hold its ground."

If he's tired of being compared to his elder brother, Govind, he does not show it. "My brother made a big contribution in planning my career," says the soft-spoken film director.

"I remember when I wanted to make Gurudakshina and I wanted him behind the cameras ... he refused point blank. I was shocked. He said `I want you to strike out on your own. I'm always there when you need me."

Gurudakshina (1984) was his first art movie; Gambler starring Govinda signalled his shift to commercial cinema in 1995. "Getting finances and marketing art movies became difficult," he explains. He thinks art movies will come back, "not strictly in the same form but maybe with similar themes".

He is approaching his next project which he is tentatively calling Dil-Dil Hindustani. Shooting starts sometime in November "but don't ask me about it. I'm concentrating on my Punjabi teleserial Lakeeran," he says.