Sammir caught in linguistic crossfire

It looks like newcomer Sammir Dattani is getting himself a lot of attention from unexpected places.

Says his "Mukhbir" director Mani Shankar: "Sammir's performance in my film is simply heart-melting. 'Mukhbir' will see him being launched as one of the most important new talents in recent times. His performance will have every mother in the audience wanting to protect him and every father wanting to beat up the guys who did this to him."

And now, London-based "Provoked" producer J. Murli Manohar is all set to sign Sammir for a big-budget regional film. Sammir, who is known as Dhyaan in Karnataka, is a formidable force at the Kannada box office with three of his four films in the language turning out to be smash hits.

Murli Manohar was impressed by Sammir-Dhyaan after seeing the young actor in his latest Kannada release "Amrithadhare". But Sammir isn't sure of how seriously he should pursue regional success.

"I get very good offers from there. But my career in Hindi is just taking off. I can't afford to do too many Kannada films. Since I owe my initial success to them, I'll do one Kannanda film a year."

Interestingly, it is normally Bollywood girls who go through this dilemma. Sammir is the first male actor in Hindi who is caught in the linguistic crossfire.