Director Madhur Bhandarkar is so impressed with Kunal Khemu’s performance in ‘Kalyug’ that he has signed him to play the central character in his next film ‘Signal’.

The young actor is very excited about the role, “It came very unexpectedly. Madhur had earlier complimented me on my performance in Kalyug. Then he called me up last week and asked me to see him urgently. He read out the script to me. It was brilliant and I was zapped when Madhur told me that he had confirmed me for the lead role.”

He also admits that he is a great follower of Bhandarkar’s films, “I have watched all his films so far and I liked Chandni Bar the best. He is a very realistic director, who defines character in vivid detail,” he said. Produced by Sahara One, Signal will go on the floor in March.

‘Signal’ is the third part of Madhur’s trilogy after ‘Page 3′ and ‘Corporate (still in making)’. Page 3 was about the world of party-hoppers. It explored the sham under the veneer of glamour. These factors are explored further in Corporate. ‘Corporate’ deals with corporate wars, corporate manipulation, corporate games and favouritism that shrouds the world of corporate bosses.

“Signal” will take the viewers into the underbelly of Mumbai. The film will depict the stories of those people whom we see at the traffic signals - the newspapers hawkers, the fruit and flower sellers and the beggars.

The star cast of hardcore-reality tale “Signal” will have only new faces. Madhur said, “You can’t have known faces playing these anonymous creatures who appear and vanish when we stop our cars at the traffic signals.”

The director wants to film this hardcore-reality tale immediately after “Corporate” is complete in early 2006. “I’ve got to get it out of my system before I move to something else.”