Writer-turned-director Suparn Verma and his leading man Fardeen Khan have formed a mutual admiration society.

Verma's directorial debut "Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena" hit the screen Friday, but the director is already planning his next film - with Fardeen.

"It will be an action flick, which will take the action genre to places where it's never been before. And it will, of course, have Fardeen.

"I can't dream of making a film without Fardeen," Suparn echoes Karan Johar speaking about Shah Rukh Khan, or earlier still Amitabh Bachchan and Manmohan Desai, Shakti Samanta and Rajesh Khanna...

"We spent lots of time together during "Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena". I can proudly say we're friends. He fits into the style-icon style of hero-giri in my cinema. So I don't see any reason to switch heroes. Yeah, Fardeen will definitely be in my next two films. And after that too, if possible."

Writer turned directors have always found the going tough. "True," concedes Suparn. "Even stalwarts like Rajinder Singh Bedi, Sagar Sarhadi and K.K. Singh couldn't make the transition from writing to direction successfully.

"Now there's Anees Bazmi who has found such richly deserved success as a director in 'No Entry'. He proves writers don't goof up as filmmakers. Why does it happen? I don't know. Maybe writers don't know how to walk that extra mile from paper to celluloid."

Suparn says he wanted to make films from the age of 10. "Ramu recommended me to Feroz Khan. From there I went to Hansal Mehta for whom I wrote 'Chal' and 'Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai'.

"From there Sanjay F. Gupta and 'Karam' happened. It was quite quick. Before I knew it I was directing 'Ek Haseena Ek Khiladi' for Pritish Nandy Communications. Fardeen heard my script, recommended it to Mr Pritish Nandy. He heard me for an hour and I was on."

Suparn says the genre is pure con. "Lots of good guys going bad, and vice versa. It's the first con film in the true sense where the audience too is being set up... There're no similarities with Sanjay Gupta's 'Kaante'. That's a heist film. The characters are all grey. It's a twisted murky ambience."

The debutant director sees no parallel to his film in Indian cinema. "Except Vijay Anand's 'Jewel Thief', which was also a con film. So it's a remote cousin to my film. That film had trouble finding an audience because it was ahead of its time.

"I would like to believe 'Ek Khiladi...' is in keeping with the times. I like to juggle many balls in the air and catch them all when they fall. I virtually slogged out the flavour and colour of the film.

"Red and black are the predominant colours. When we came on the sets the preparation was all done. That's why we completed the film in 45 days."

Then there is Koena Mitra who makes her big debut as a leading lady. "We needed a full-blooded woman, and Koena fitted bill. She was as dedicated to the film as I was.

"She shot a whole song with a stone in her kidney and got operated the next day. She looks like a seasoned actress in my film."

Suparn's "Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena" and Akbar Khan's "Taj Mahal" released on same day.

"So it's the Khans pitched against one another, huh? Nothing so dramatic! Feroz Khan Saab is the link with all the Khan brothers. Everyone looks up to him. So there can be no rivalry between 'Taj Mahal' and our film. Theirs is period film. 'Ek Khiladi...' opens up new characters and a new world."

Incidentally Feroz and Fardeen Khan don't play related characters in Suparn's film.