Even before he made his directorial debut with Ek Haseena Thi (2004), produced by Ram Gopal Varma, director Sriram Raghavan, 55, was spoken of in highly reverential terms among film-buffs — chiefly for his FTII diploma film, from the late '80s. Titled The Eight Column Affair (edited by Rajkumar Hirani, with Nana Patekar in a cameo), the 30-minuter (available on YouTube) literally shows news coming alive, "when an athlete featured on the front page of a newspaper, falls in love with a tennis starlet, featured on the last page!"

Whatever you may think of his features thereafter (and there are only five), Raghavan's stature has only grown over the years as a bit of a master of the suspense-thriller, packaged entertainment. But more so as a filmmaker's filmmaker, given that discussion on his movies, particularly in geek circles, have centred on individual scenes/sequences, even references (James Hadley Chase) and nods (Vijay Anand), rather than merely plot, or performances, or box office figures alone.