Sitting at the Hyderabad office of the Varma Corporation Limited, the 24-year-old director of Shool looks back at the journey from U Srinivas, the boy who left his home, to E Nivas, now a sought-after director. ``Had I pursued my studies, I still would not know a thing about film-making. The only thing to do was to join the sets and learn first-hand.''

Into his next project, a romance, he flits between Mumbai and Hyderabad. At 24, he looks like a well-groomed college boy at the age of 20. He is, however, not shy. He is reticent. The answers to questions are not spontaneous. His answers respondto the question and do no more. He prefers to stay away from the Press. This is only his second interview.

The film, which belongs to the Ram Gopal Varma school where Nivas learnt everything in film making, has not been a hit. Mumbai recorded 75 per cent attendance in the first week and the figure rose to 81.24 per cent in the second week against a national average of 55.58 and 45.34 respectively. The poorest response came from Chennai and Delhi. In Hyderabad alone it collected Rs 103,830,54 on five prints.

But directorial offers coming in despite Shool's just-above-average performance at the box office. He, of course, has no intention of leaving the Varma stable for total independence, like Vamshi Krishna, who has established himself as a leading director in Telugu films.

``I only interpret the screenplay in Ramuji's style,'' says Nivas. Innovations and his own personal stamp on the treatment will come in due course. He is an admirer of Mani Ratnam. He has not seen much of Satyajit Ray, nor has heexposed himself to famous names from Europe and Hollywood.

He is a fan of Francis Ford Coppola. He likes James Cameron and Steven Spielberg. Life is Beautiful is the only Italian film he has seen. At the moment he confines himself to be an exponent of Ramuji's concept. And the mentor watches at every step.

But Shool scripted jointly by Varma and Nivas is the latter's creation entirely in terms of translation of the script into the movie. ``I was fortunate that Ramuji allowed me complete freedom. He did remove a few scenes and had a couple of scenes re-shot, but they were largely matter-of-fact scenes. None of the major scenes were changed,'' says Nivas, whose name was changed by his guru. ``I don't know why he changed the name,'' says Nivas, ``but he wanted it that way and I had no objection.''

Starting his career at Rs 600 per month, today he is without a fixed salary. ``I take whatever money I want,'' Nivas says ``and it is never refused.''The new film again jointly being scripted by his mentor andhimself will be ready to roll in February. Though Nivas refused to confirm it, he also did not deny that the hero for the next venture could be Abhishek Bachchan, the son of Amitabh. A couple of weeks ago, Varma and Nivas held a special screening of Shool for Amitabh. The former mega star was reportedly impressed by the treatment of an oft-repeated theme and seemed to have no objection to Nivas directing Abhishek.