'Tusshar can't be in all my films'

Ekta Kapoor, the queen of Indian television serials, has been lodged in scenic Mussoorie and Dehradun for the last month.

"I miss my home, my parents [Jeetendra and Shobha Kapoor] and my brother Tusshar [Kapoor], including my fights with them, ha-ha, but what to do? A job is a job," says Ekta.

She has been shooting nights with her cast -- Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Rati Agnihotri and Natassha (the Kucch To Hai debutante is quite a favourite with the Kapoor siblings; she also plays the lead in Tusshar's next release, Yeh Dil).

Ekta is on location, serving as producer and all-purpose right-and-left-hand person on the sets of her second feature film after Kucch To Hai (Tusshar, Esha Deol, Natassha).

"Actually, it [the current film] is the third [release]," Ekta chuckles, as lightboys bustle around her getting the next shot ready. "Much as I would like to forget it, there's Kyunkii Main Jhooth Nahin Bolta [the Govinda-Sushmita Sen starrer was a box-office disaster]."

Ekta is tense but happy with the shots that have already been canned. "We have almost completed the film in the month that we have been here. We have not yet thought of a title. But, of course, the film will begin with K [Ekta's astrologer Sunita Menon says all her ventures should begin with K for luck and success]. This film is a thriller like Kucch To Hai [which was modelled on I Know What You Did Last Summer] and will be unlike anything seen in Hindi cinema. I am very happy with my cast, but this is not a film about actors, it is about treatment. Isha's character is fairly central to the plot."

What made her choose Sohail Khan instead of her brother? Ekta grins and shrugs. "He [Tusshar] can't be in all my films. I am planning to produce two more films, one starring Tusshar and the other Fardeen Khan."

Adds Tusshar, who has just returned from a three-week holiday in the US, "If I am in all my sister's films, they accuse us of favouritism. And if I am not, they say there is something wrong. We can't win either way."

Ekta shrugs off all speculation. "I'm just too much into my work to bother with what people are saying."