I was interested in theatre and media and came to Mumbai to get a job. I imagined that the film industry would be a white building with producers sitting in different rooms, and you could...

The film industry has been extremely welcoming to me. It’s an industry which is biased to what they think is talent. If they think you can bring value to cinema, they’ll support you.

I’m a big foodie. Hyderabadi cuisine is amazing, and the kind of mutton dishes available at some restaurants in the Old City is incredible.

I am a keen observer of my own films; I also try to discover myself through the movies I make.

I think ‘Rockstar’ is more dear to me than any of my other films.

Sometimes I don’t know whether a movie has been shot on film or in digital when I watch it in the theatres.

I was complexed and awkward that I was good for nothing and was always lying. I would lie to my school friends that I was a stud in my colony and to my colony friends...

Coming from a middle class background, travel was always considered a luxury then, even if it meant going to a relative’s place or a religious shrine.

Anything I wanted to do and achieve has not been influential in my life, but my failures have.

The physical journey in my films is indicative of the internal journey that my characters take.

I myself got married at a very young age. It has always intrigued me because marriage is very synthetic in an otherwise natural world.

I feel whatever an actor does on screen is something the actor ‘does,’ and what the director can do is to tell, talk or instruct. So, all the credit for an actor’s performance goes to...

I used to love Kapil Dev and, like any schoolboy, wanted to become a cricketer till I started dreaming of making movies.

When you write a story, it just flows and you don’t control it. It’s subconscious.

I think I am a travel junkie, and I have never enjoyed anything else in my life more than travelling and going to places.

I just write characters, and somehow they happen to be a boy and a girl. When the story is put together, and their characters interwoven, they do end up together somehow.

I want to direct what I feel is interesting – not what is supposed to be my zone.

I enjoy scenes in films, which do not have the pressure of the story so much… and it flows. I’ve tried to go in that direction.

My father did irrigation jobs, and I would sometimes accompany him, and that gave me a taste of what was going on in the innards of India.

I want all my films to look distinctly different, like some other directors I admire. But in a way, I can’t really take myself completely out of the movies I make.

If a person wants to enjoy attention, he will create situations to get it.

I have always tried to make profitable films because people’s offices shut down if films fail, and I will do everything to avoid that.

Dilip Kumar was the only Bollywood hero who could make a girl shiver just by looking at her. If you don’t believe it, ask your mom!

The story of ‘Highway’ is completely about travel. It is about the fascination of travel to an extent that I don’t want to even reach the destination and also being away from society gives you...

All the conscious decisions that I have taken in my life have never borne fruit. Not even come close! So, I am just very happy not planning.

I’m not educated about cinema or genres.

I try to travel as much as I can… I’m always looking for a reason to.

I enjoy looking beyond the obvious and look at the stories happening all around me – you kind of formulate things in your mind and get excited about them.

I’m not the ‘look at me’ kind of a person. I do not like showing off in public or written about.

Through travel, you discover a new aspect to your personality. You discover things which you wouldn’t seated in the confines of your home.

Expenditure can’t really guarantee a great experience. I don’t even like shopping; I’ve never bought stuff for myself, and everything I wear are gifts from my brothers, friends and people.

‘Love Aaj Kal’ is not really a road movie, but it does involve some travel.

Usually, you lose interest in a story beyond a certain point. But with ‘Highway,’ there was something very subtle, yet something very influential. I intended ‘Highway’ to be the first film that I ever made....

I come from a middle class background. I have travelled a lot by trains and have lived in the world. It is a world I cannot get away from; I would not even want to.

My job is to tell a story, and the decisions about the casting have to be honest.

Especially on unexpected journeys, you have time; you can figure certain deeper things out, like who you are and what you want. That’s why I enjoy journeys.

I was called to audition for a play when I was very young, following which I continued to act as well as write and direct. When I moved to Delhi and joined Hindu College, theatre...