Subhash Ghai’s probably not had a very peaceful sleep ever since his grand venture Yuvvraaj released over a week ago. A still from Yuvraaj.

Critics ripped apart the film that had performances by actors like Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor. So what’s the secret behind the director’s grin these days? Well, Showman Ghai received a call from none other than master painter Maqbool Fida Husain who, it seems, has gone quite fida over the film!

“It was a very sweet gesture on his part to call me and praise the film,” says Ghai. The director says he was surprised to receive the call from an artist he admires so much. “He was compelled to see the film twice and said that Yuvvraaj was complete cinema. He said it’s a film that comes in years, with such beautiful visuals and music,” he adds.

Husain, who’s in Dubai at the moment, confirms the same. “The first thing that struck me about the film was its music, so creative. Second, after a long time I have seen Salman Khan as an actor, thanks to Ghai. He could extract that performance from him,” says the artist, clearly not taken in by the critics’ views, “Sometimes, we have to question the critics’ views,” he believes.

The artist is known to go fida over some of his favourite films’ heroines, so what did he think of Yuvvraaj’s Katrina Kaif? “Well, Katrina is a good actress,” admits Husain, “but somehow she didn’t stand out in this film.” And now the clincher. Husain has been so inspired by the film that he plans to make a painting of the same and present it to Ghai! “It’ll be my vision of the film from the images I’ve seen,” he says. Our guess is that Katrina won’t be figuring anywhere in it!