'I married Priyanka last year'

E Niwas could've been gone out of circulation after his last film Bardasht bombed at the boxoffice.

But Niwas married his sweetheart and his luck changed. "I got married a year back to Priyanka. It was a love marriage."

"I finished scripting two films. Then I approached Riteish Deshmukh who loved the script of the comedy De Taali. I thought after Bardasht he wouldn't want to work with me. But Riteish loved it.

And he said he wanted to shoot immediately. I for married on 9 August last year. We started shooting after ten days. We went for our honeymoon and I cleverly started shooting De Taali there for fifteen days.

I had warned Riteish De Taali would take time, that I'd do it between breaks for My Name Is Anthony Gonzalves which was a big responsibility for me since I was producing directing and launching a new boy Nikhil Diwedi. Riteish was game, And we completed De Taali in-between schedules of Anthony Gonzalves."

Niwas describes Anthony Gonzalves as a slice-of-life drama. "It's about dreams and ambitions and a friendship between a film struggler Nikhil and a much older man, a gangster played by Pavan Malhotra. These two opposites form the core of the plot."

Gonzalves and De Taali are both original scripts. "That's right. Shool was inspired by Zanjeer, Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega was taken from Fargo and my Dum was an remake of Telugu films.

But De Taali and Anthony Gonzalves are original works. I had to gain the confidence to do something that isn't inspired from other sources."

Nikhil Diwedi who plays the title role was Niwas' first and only choice. "As for my leading lady Amrita Rao, everyone wants to know why I've changed her image to a glamorous one after her traditional role in Vivah.

But I always saw Amrita as glamorous. When I asked her to do an item song she had no hesitation in getting into the grooves."

Interestingly Niwas works with three generations of actors in My Name Is Anthony Gonzalves.

"Mithun Chakraborty who plays a priest never let us feel his seniority although Pavan Malhotra was a junior and Nikhil was a kid. Mithuda was one of us.

He often had to wait for us on the sets. I needed this kind of support. Considering I was stepping into production for the first time."