MUMBAI: Television and film actor Rohit Roy has turned director with a 10-minute short film called Rice Plate.

The film is a part of Sanjay Gupta’s Dus Kahaniyan (the assemblage of 10 short stories to be released as one feature film). Roy joins the ranks of different directors doing the films including Sanjay Gupta, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Meghna Gulzar, Jasmeet Dodhi, Vishal Bhardwaj and Apoorva Lakhia.

The actor-turned-director’s debut venture brings back the memorable hit pair of Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, who have starred together in award winning films like Sparsh, Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai, Mandi and Masoom.

Says Roy, “It’s the biggest moment of my life. It will be a fabulous experience to work with great actors like Naseer-sahab and Shabana-ji.”

“It’s an emotional drama and revolves around Hindu – Muslim issues. Naseer-sahab plays a Muslim while Shabanaji plays a Tamilian. We will shoot for the film soon.”

Roy’s role as  Rishabh Malhotra in Swabhimaan in the 1990s was noticed, followed by the character of Abhay in Kkusum to Karan Pratap Singh in Sarrkkar (a character loosely based on the Gandhi dynasty scion Sanjay Gandhi).

On the silver screen, he has done roles in Sanjay Gupta’s Plan, Pritish Nandy’s Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena, Samar Khan’s Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and others, and is slated to appear in Sanjay Gupta’s forthcoming film Alibaugh. He has also opened his own production company with his wife Manasi Roy, and the company’s first show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Hungama on Zee Music, went on air recently.