New Delhi, Aug 28 - A craft 'can get rusty' if not practised enough - humble words coming from Amol Palekar. But the film veteran has his reasons for staying away from acting in movies for more than two decades, one being that 'Hindi filmmakers are perhaps not missing' him.

'Why I am not seen in Hindi films? Ask the Hindi filmmakers. Probably they are not missing me, to be honest,' Amol told IANS in an interview during a visit to the capital.

'But that's fine, absolutely fine. If there is someone who comes up with a good role, something which will once again excite me, by all means I'll do it, irrespective of any language, as I did when I was acting,' said the 64-year-old actor, who is making a comeback as an actor with Marathi movie 'Samaantar'.

Releasing Sep 4, 'Samaantar' is a tale about two parallel lives crossing each other in the twilight of life. The heart-wrenching drama has been directed, scripted and co-produced by his wife Sandhya Gokhale.

Surprisingly, the winner of three Filmfare and six state awards for Best Actor said he had 'butterflies in his stomach right till the last day' of the film's shoot.

'I had lots of apprehensions for my acting...acting is not like swimming or cycling as is said and done...that's not true actually. A craft, if not practised enough, gets rusty,' he said.

'But then there were two aspects to it. With Sandhya being my co-director, my performance was never a tension for me and then having such brilliant co-actors, including Sharmila, and a wonderful team around me, I could easily get away with not really struggling. It was a sheer pleasure (to act again),' he added.

Distributed by Big Pictures, 'Samaantar' ('Parallel Folds') competed at the recent Bollywood & Beyond Film Festival at Stuttgart, Germany. Amol has co-directed the film.

'After a long time, something excited me and inspired me to act. I took it as a challenge, hoping that I am the best one to take up every nuance of the character and the complete range of emotions in an understated manner. I thought I could do it without underlining anything or being melodramatic,' he explained.