Boss, I QUIT!-rohit/rahul lamba

Rohit Roy quits television forever, will direct a film for Sanjay Gupta

Television star Rohit Roy is all set to quit television. He is ready to move to Bollywood as a director, and direct a film for producer Sanjay Gupta.

"This has been my plan for a while now. In fact, even before Sanjay Gupta offered me the chance to direct a film, I had decided to quit television," says Rohit.

His decision was prompted by his inability to be part of Meghna Gulzar's ensemble drama Just Married, which he had set his heart on. The inability to work out the dates for Meghna's film clinched the matter for Rohit. He says, "I kept trying to accommodate Meghna's film in my schedule till the eleventh hour. But my dates were all submerged in television. Finally my wife Manasi and I both opted out of the film. It looked like I let down Pritish Nandy Communications and Meghna. But I had actually let myself down."

The loss of the film acted like a wake-up call for Rohit. "I always wanted to be an actor and director. I'm working on my script right now. It will take a couple of months. But I'm very pleased with my decision to opt out of television. As it is, I 've done television selectively. But there's still never any time to do anything else in life when you're doing television. I had to get out. That was my New Year resolution this time," adds Rohit.

Rohit describes the story he is working on, as a slice-of-life about urban reality in Mumbai.

Rohit is also directing a story in Gupta's Dus Kahaniyaan, Part 2. He says, "It's a story titled Rice Plate. This will come before my full-length feature film. It will deal with the theme of communal strife."

Meanwhile, Rohit is trying to complete his commitments on television as quickly as possible. "I've some episodes of Star One's Viraasat to complete. And then I'm done with television forever," he says.

Rohit and his wife Manasi will also be seen together in Sanjay Gupta's semi-autobiographical Alibaug.

Rohit says, "I've done television for many years, I started in the days of Doordarshan with Swabhimaan. Now I need to explore further."