Bhatti, who was here yesterday to celebrate 100 days of his maiden Punjabi comedy film Mahaul Theek Hai in New Rialto theatre, said people's response to his film was unpredictable.

Bhatti said encouraged by Mahaul Theek Hai, he is set to venture into a Hindi comedy film. He said the audience in India was very responsive to humorous criticism of social evils. He felt honoured to be accepted country-wide on silver screen as the first `real Sikh character'.

Bhatti said Punjabis are great people and their sense of humour is unparalleled and the Punjab Police had reacted with the same gesture over the story ofMahaul Theek Hai. He said police in every state was the same and the system was surviving due to a handful of upright people in every organisation.

Replying to a question, Bhatti said what Gulzar had portrayed in Maachis in his typical style, he had presented with a satire. He said he had picked his scenes from day-to-day life. He said he had no plans to make art or serious films as he felt comfortable doing comedy only. He said direction was his first love and acting was a stepping stone to achieve this ultimate goal.

``I am getting many offers of acting in Hindi films and while some of them like Kartoos, Jaanam Samjha Karo and Dus are ready for release, Shashi Kapoor's Aa Ab Laut Chalen has already been released,'' he said.

On the failure of Punjabi films, Bhatti said the main reason for it was lack of vision. He said due to a lot of urbanisation and modernisation, script writers should adapt to new themes instead of presenting stereotype stories of family feuds over land. He said Shaheed-e-Mohabbat was a great success because of its new idea.

Meanwhile, Bhatti and his co-stars ofMahaul Theek Hai were honoured at a function held in New Rialto cinema. Inspector General of Police J.P. Birdi presided over the function and appreciated Bhatti's efforts to highlight a sensitive issue in a sensible manner. Savita Bhatti, Chandni Toor (heroine of the film) and script writer Bakhshinder, Vinod Sharma and other artists and technicians were honoured by city Mayor Subhash Sharma. New Rialto theatre proprietor Amritpal Singh Sandhu announced that Bhatti had given 15 days' salary to all cinema employees as bonus on his movie running successfully for 100 days.