My last film as director, the National Award winning 'Zakhm,' barely managed to break even. So why should I listen to so-called sensibilities of a handful of critics?

Men who create power make an indispensable contribution to a nation's greatness. But, men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.

Without a good story, a franchise won't work.

I have great reverence for women.

My mother found herself in a triangular situation of my father and his legitimate wife. I experienced the emotional trauma of that triangle in my cradle.

A franchise gives a sense of security to everyone - the director, producers, exhibitors, and even the audience feels that they are watching something close to the first part.

Cinema now can't be just about introspection and atma manthan; such topics won't work.

Life isn't all about entertainment.

No power on earth can ever get me back to directing a commercial film.

The whole idea of 'One size fits all' is not going to work in India with a billion people.

There is no denying that entertainment industries are insular, but you can't generalise that statement and apply it to everyone.

The film industry not only in India but also Hollywood is insular. It's inward-looking.

I don't think the choice of launching Sunny Leone as an actor in Hindi cinema was that radical a decision.

While the male wants to conquer the world, the woman has a take on her immediate world that is so sparklingly refreshing that the male cannot even think of it.

Men like Sunil Dutt should not be mourned, only envied for their greatness.

I come from a home where my mother was the only emotional umbrella under which we found all the warmth and comforts and sustenance. My father would come and go, and not as often as we'd want him to.

I have no worthwhile memories of my father, therefore no idea of what a father's role should be.

'Blood Money' was a stand-alone film, but we worked double for it. We realised how difficult it is to sensitise people to anything new, especially when you don't have a star.

Modi talks about Congress Mukt Bharat. I feel this is a fascist ideology.

I don't give a tinker's damn for posterity.

I was perhaps lucky to be born in a single-parent home where my mother, Shirin Mohammed Ali, was the sole figure I revered. My father's absence in my life in my formative years exposed me to only one person, who was my source of learning the lessons of life. So to me, listening to a woman and her worldly view is almost automatic.

With larger-than-life films, you are lifted from your mundane, ordinary life because you empathise with the hero, and people see themselves in him.

I am an absolute atheist.

A true artist is one who, even after doing a lot, he reminds himself that he hasn't done anything.

Questioning authority can hardly be called our national pastime. We even make a philosophy out of fear. Fatalism, destiny, karma... are the favourite cultural holes we hide in when authority flogs us. And what's our tragedy.

'Citylights' is for those people who know a lot but don't feel at all. It's time for them to feel, and this film will make those people, who know so much, feel because feeling is the life blood of human race, which is disappearing.

My mother was a Muslim and dad a Hindu. I got the best upbringing that anyone could. Never did I see any angst in my family owing to that: each practiced their own religion. My existence is the harmony that these two communities can achieve if they try.

I believe that, at times, if some of us are almost too critical of our society, it's because our sensitivity and our concern for justice makes us aware that our nation falls terribly short of its highest potential.

There is a child in every man, and that's why larger-than-life stories which have a fairly tale component will work.

Campaigning for Congress is an issue of conviction, and there is no element of any personal gain in it.

I love working with newcomers.