'I'm talking to Hrithik for my next film'

New Delhi: He carved a niche for himself in filmdom with non-starrers like Makdee and Maqbool. But composer filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj now says star presence is extremely important for a film's box office success and that he is trying to rope in Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan for his next movie.

"I think stars are very important to reach out to the people. Along with that they are good actors as well. I think Shah Rukh (Khan) is a very fine actor, so is Aamir (Khan), Hrithik (Roshan), Saif (Ali Khan) and even Shahid (Kapoor)," said Bhardwaj.

"If the audiences love them and they don't mind coming to the cinema halls to see their faces and their costumes, then that's good because we can tell a story through them," added the director who teamed up with big stars for Omkara and Kaminey.

He made his directorial debut Makdee (2002) with Makrand Deshpande, Shweta Prasad and Alaap Mazgaonkar. The only big name in the cast was Shabana Azmi.

Two years later, Bhardwaj came out with his highly acclaimed movie Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth. It didn't boast of a star line up either - Pankaj Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Tabu formed the cast.

But his next directorial venture Omkara, again based on Shakespeare's play Othello, was bejwelled with big names like Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Vivek Oberoi.

His latest hit Kaminey too had Bollywood stars Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.

Now Bhardwaj is trying to sign Hrithik and Priyanka for his next venture. "I am in talks with Hrithik for a film but nothing is confirmed at the moment. However, Priyanka is confirmed for that project," he added.

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