My ultimate desire is to direct: Apurva Agnihotri

New Delhi, Feb 18 (IANS) Acting is passe for actor Apurva Agnihotri of the 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin' fame. Direction is his new passion!

The actor, who is remembered for his performance as a spoilt NRI youth in Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Pardes' as well as the good-looking strict boss Armaan Suri in popular TV show 'Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin', says he always wanted to go behind the camera and will do so in the next five years.

'See, I have this desire to direct. I had got this beautiful offer while I was doing a show for NDTV called 'Say Shava Shava'. I can't name the person who gave the offer but it was huge. It couldn't have been bigger than that. But I don't know why - somewhere I wasn't ready for it then. Deep within you know when the time comes -- but that time wasn't right. But I guess now I am getting there,' Apurva told IANS in an interview.

Apurva, who was in the capital with his actress wife Shilpa Saklani last week to promote UTV Bindass' new show 'Destination Love', says he needs to unlearn and learn a lot before he starts wielding the camera professionally.

'Firstly, I think I need to go on the opposite side (behind the camera) and unlearn a lot of things because television corrupts you. Every actor who works in television feels he can direct because we end up doing 10-12 scenes in a day and after six-eight months, we start feeling that we can write and direct too. But it ain't really that easy, especially when you're making a film,' he said.

'I would want to go and unlearn whatever I have in mind about filmmaking, be a student of cinema and work with a handful of people who know their craft well,' added Apurva.

In fact, the 37-year-old had also considered signing up for a filmmaking course, but decided otherwise on his wife's suggestion.

'We had gone to New York and there was this film academy and I was pretty close to joining it but then Shilpa very rightly said that there is no substitute for experience. If and when I go on the other side, I would probably assist a filmmaker first, before I start on my own,' he said.

Shilpa, who is sporting a short haircut unlike her usual long locks, reasoned and said: 'I would like him to assist a filmmaker. That is not theory knowledge - that is practical knowledge and nothing is better than practical knowledge. When you are on the sets, learning from your mistakes and someone else's mistake, there's no better knowledge than that. You learn best when you're on the job.'

The couple, married for nearly six years, was last seen together in NDTV Imagine's reality show 'Pati Patni Aur Woh'.

As of now, both of them are happy and content doing nothing and just 'chilling out' while 'waiting for something exciting to come along'.