'Mausam' was written for Shahid: Pankaj Kapoor

Mumbai: Actor-turned-director Pankaj Kapoor admits that the story of his directorial debut Mausam was specifically conceived for his actor son Shahid, but he had no specific names in his mind for the female lead.

"The film was specifically written keeping Shahid in mind. It's not that I had written the script and then decided on Shahid," Pankaj told reporters at the launch of the first look of Mausam on Monday.

"I had other scripts and we wondered whether Shahid could be part of them or a fresh script should be written for him? We decided to write a fresh script and that's how the birth of Mausam took place," he added.

Mausam, a love story, will see Shahid as a pilot and he has teamed up with Sonam Kapoor in it.

"While writing, there was no girl in my head, it was the character that was in my head. I think Sonam was the very first actress who was approached for the role," Pankaj said.

The 57-year-old, know for his work on television like the comedy show "Office Office" and his performance in movies like Maqbool, Dharm and Blue Umbrella, says he has been longing to direct a film.

"I had wanted to direct a film for a long time. I have directed on television for five years. So there was this desire to direct. I was writing for a long time. There were talks about my directing a film for a long time and here came a moment where we decided to go for this film," said Pankaj.

He claims his movie will set new standards in filmmaking.

"It has its own comment to make. Though the endeavour is to make an entertaining film, which reaches to almost everyone and yet have a certain level of presentation that appeals to one and all. It will be able to set some kind of a standard of work," he said.

He maintains that being an actor himself had helped him extract exactly what he had conceived from the lead pair.

"When I am in the shoes of a director, I don't think like an actor. I am only there to support my actors and take out the best from them. I happened to be aware of it as I had been an actor and it sort of helped me to take work out of them and to convey what I actually wanted from them," said Pankaj.