At the age of seven Manoj saw Star Wars and started experimenting with his father's 8-mm. camera, according to the March 22, 1998 issue of The Week. In the meantime he had learnt what it meant to be the only Hindu in a Catholic school for boys - the Waldron Mercy Academy.

Between the ages of 10 and 16 the younger Shyamalan made 45 short films, many of them with a video camera that the family had acquired and all of them with the help of neighbourhood children and such cousins of his as may have come visiting. Whatever plots the films may have had were his brainchildren.

Jayalakshmi said that this film-making activity had been only a game for her son. At the age of 14 or thereabouts, on the other hand, Manoj reportedly told the counsellor of his high school (the Episcopal Academy): "Steven Spielberg had to start somewhere." This seems to indicate that he had begun to nurse aspirations by then.

The elder Shyamalans granted, however, that Manoj was a very good writer even during his teen years. In fact, they said, writing was the first line in which the boy had shown promise. They asserted that he still loved writing.

Why, then, did Night Shyamalan tell an interviewer that he was "very stressed" when writing? He was only giving expression to a passing mood, according to his parents.

There may have been an undercurrent of tension between Manoj and his parents during his teen years, for the latter, by their own account, were less permissive about dating and the keeping of late nights than the parents of his 'native American' peers. Shyamalan pere and mere insisted on their children being home by 11 at night.

As the above account indicates, Manoj Shyamalan was exposed to fairly strong doses of two very different national cultures during childhood and adolescence. This may account for the very offbeat character of his films.

Jayalakshmi Shyamalan has gone on record with the statement that her son's values are Indian. When I sought an elaboration of that statement, she said that the atmosphere at their home was Indian and that Manoj had observed manifestations of Indian culture during the family's visits to the land of his birth.

N C Shyamalan said his son's approach to family life - his attachment not only to parents, sister, wife and children but to grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces as well - was "Indian." He attributes the interest in the supernatural that comes through in Night's films to the latter's exposure to Hindu religious belief, including the theory of reincarnation - not to mention all those ghost stories.

Shyamalan senior also told me that one reason why his son had refused to shift to Hollywood was that his family life was dear to him. Night lives in Philadelphia with his wife and his two little daughters, including baby Ishana - born on November 16, 2000. His home is not far from the homes of his parents and his computer scientist sister Veena Loftus, who is married to an Irish American and has a son and a daughter.

By now it is common knowledge, so to speak, that 14 of Night Shyamalan's relations, including his parents, are in the medical profession and that it had been taken for granted that he himself would opt for medicine when the time came. I asked N C Shyamalan how he had felt when his son announced, instead, that he wanted to enroll in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts to study movie-making. "I was a little anxious," he replied. "After all, how many people are successful in that line?

"When I saw his first film (Praying with Anger), however, I became confident that he would come up."

While film-making was Night's major at the Tisch School, he also did a course in psychology there, besides studying basic subjects like science and mathematics. Movie buffs would have discerned by now that psychology holds a fascination for him.

About Wide Awake, Night's second film, Jayalakshmi said "It was a very well-made family movie. It made us very proud. We were disappointed that it was not properly promoted."

As Shyamalan senior recalled the episode, Miramax, the producers, didn't show much interest in promoting Wide Awake. It was exhibited in only 28 theatres in north America. (The Sixth Sense was shown in about 2,800 theatres in that territory.)

Night Shyamalan generally keeps a few scripts in skeletal form ready for developing as and when required. He carries a dictaphone with him wherever he goes and records ideas as soon as possible after they occur to him.

What is the status of Night's discussions with Spielberg on the latter's proposal that he write the script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie? N C Shyamalan said his son was hesitant about accepting the assignment. "He wants to write something original. The character of Indiana Jones is stereotyped."

Meanwhile, Manoj Night Shyamalan is all set to write his next screenplay. What is it about? The elder Shyamalans say not only that they do not know but also that they prefer not to ask.