The producer of Josh, Venus boss Ratan Jain who has earlier worked with Shah Rukh Khan on Baazigar, Yes Boss and Badshah also roots for Josh, the director Mansoor Khan and the Shah Rukh Khan Aishwarya Rai combo.

"The film has turned out even better than we'd anticipated," he enthused.

"The best part of the film is the storyline. It's very different from the rest of the run-of the mill stuff .Consider this, the film pairs the top two stars of the day , Shah Rukh  and Aishwarya, but as brother and sister." The producer is obviously more thrilled than apprehensive about the unusual casting.

"Some people say that the filin would have been a hotter proposition if Shah Rukh and Aishwarya had been romantically paired opposite each other but that wasn't our consideration. When we, the director and I went over the script, our first choice for the sister's role was Aishwarya Rai. Aishwarya plays Shirley, a beautiful mischievous girl. At that time she wasdt a big star but she was still our choice because she suited the role perfectly. Today she is a big star land that will definitely benefit the film. So the individual characters decided the actors that would play them."

 After Akele Hum Akele Tum came a cropper, how did he decide to hand a bigger canvas like Josh to the same director, Mansoor Khan?

 "The producer-director relationship is like that of a husband and wife and in that the box-office is not the most important factor. Mansoor is a director with whom you can sit and discuss and find a solution to any problem. He is a very committed and dedicated director. He's sensitive, knows his job, and he stays unruffled all the time. It's fun working with him. Even if a director gives me a big hit and I don't have any bonding with him or I find him arrogant, I wouldn't work with him again."

 Considering Shah Rukh practically began his career with the Venus family (Baazigar), how come josh took so long to make?

 It has taken 2 I/2 years for this film to be completed because I was doing two films with Shah Rukh -- Badshah and Josh -- and the dates got divided. Also he was too busy with his home production, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Maybe it was our mistake,

 I shouldn’t have signed two films with Shah Rukh at a time. Obviously, he couldn't give all his time only to my films. We gave priority to Badshah and most of the work on Josh was done after the release of BaadShah. Josh has a very big canvas and you cannot complete such a film in a year's time - there are lots of locations, lots of variations, lots of artistes. It is not a normal love story which you can complete in three months, so it was natural for it to get delayed.

 I am very close to Shah Rukh. As an actor he really inspires me. That's the reason most of my films are conceived for Shah Rukh and I keep working with him. He infuses a special something into all the roles he does; he just gets into the skin of the character and becomes the character. Luckily, for the last 3-4 years, Shah Rukh has been only doing comedy and romantic films so this film where he plays a daring, dynamic, rebellious character will be like a breath of fresh air. He is simply superb at these intense roles and this particular one is tailormade for him."