Ramesh Sippy fashioned one of the most influential and successful Hindi films in 1975. Today, he looks back on Sholay with humble pride.

"Films are not doing well these days because filmmakers have not kept pace with the times," says Sippy. "We don't need heavy-handed plots anymore. Even when the story gets lighter, the telling has to have substantial moments, those defining junctures that make a movie experience worthwhile. Good cinema, whether Sholay or earlier films, have worked because they are not overdone. That is why audiences can go back to Sholay even after 28 years."

Though Sippy's post-Sholay films have not been successful, he is extremely proud of the Dilip Kumar-Amitabh Bachchan drama Shakti and the serene Rishi Kapoor-Kamal Haasan-Dimple Kapadia love triangle Sagar.

Now, Sippy's son Rohan is ready with his first film Kuch Na Kaho, a love story featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.

Sippy is cautiously proud of his son's venture: "He has made a film about a man-woman relationship that not too many directors would venture into. I think Rohan has managed to bring in a great deal of maturity through his two lead players."

He insists that Rohan has made Kuch Na Kaho in his own way. "I was there to guide him," he says, "but on the sets Rohan was on his own."

Kuch Na Kaho is a very expensive film, but the expenses don't show, he says. "They didn't in Sholay. That is the beauty of it. The resources have gone into the details."

Sippy hopes audiences won't see Kuch Na Kaho as a film by the son of the man who made Sholay. Abhishek Bachchan has had to bear the same cross vis-a-vis his father. "I think Rohan has a lesser burden to bear," says Sippy. "Fortunately for him, I have been lying low for a while. Unfortunately for Abhishek, his father was back with Mohabbatein when his debut was round the corner."

Sippy, who worked with Amitabh in Sholay, Shaan, Shakti and Akayla, is full of praise for Abhishek. "I think the big time is round the corner for him," he says. "He has all the makings of a big star. He has his own personality."

Rohan, he says, has been "extremely clever" in letting Abhishek be himself in Kuch Na Kaho. "He has not been made to behave out of character. It doesn't feel like a performance at all," he remarks.