Destiny’s Call

“It’s been a long day,” he tells us,but is hopeful of wrapping up the post-production in a week’s time. For two years now,this has been his routine. “During the edit,I used to leave the studio at around 2 am and then start work early the next day,” says Sethi,who considers YRF Studios to be his second home now.

The white interiors of the lounge nicely complement Sethi’s white shirt-blue denim look. And the yellow light from the chandelier reflects on his gleeful face. “I am very blessed. When I wrote the script in six days,I hardly thought that anyone would appreciate it,leave alone make a movie about it,” says Sethi,who quit his television career to become a writer-director. “Television was my laboratory. I got a chance to portray so many different characters,but I had been planning to turn director for the last 13-14 years,” he says,adding,“I asked my wife Archana (Puran Singh) if she would be able to manage the house if I did not work for a year and she was extremely supportive,” he smiles.

Sethi then wrote a script and approached Chopra to produce it. “Adi loved my script and we had finalised everything when the movie got stalled due to certain political reasons,” says the 49-year-old. “But since it belongs to YRF now,it should happen sooner or later.” Chopra then asked Sethi to go through the whole process of writing another script. “But I had run out of money by then and I needed work. So I started calling TV producers for work. When I did not hear from the producers,I decided to go for it and write another script.” Thus was born Badmaash

Company,after which everything eventually fell into place—from the cast to the locations,says Sethi,who considers this to be his ‘second’ debut with YRF. The first one was the history-making Dilwale

Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. “I had known Adi to be a brilliant director-producer then. So when I decided to make my movie I gave him a call. Thankfully,he hadn’t forgotten me,” he says.

With things going as planned,Sethi has no plans of returning to the small screen and hopes to stick to the YRF banner. “It’s the best. Why should I leave it?” he reasons. Post

Badmaash’s release,Sethi will start work on another script. “I have an idea,” he says,but for now he hopes his second debut will be as memorable as his first one. If not,better.