Our cinema is coming of age, and people are realizing we need to tell different stories differently and in fresh manner and not just do formula stuff and serve it to the audience.
Pankaj Kapur
My wife and I often have debates about who studied in a better school and when I list KVM alumni, she kind of loses the argument.
Content-driven films can make money - something that is gripping, is a journey of revelation and is relevant is cinema.
In India, writers are underpaid. Universities should start new courses to create more opportunities for them.
Every actor must go through the process of learning and not just be in a hurry to become famous. They should learn to live in small amounts and not to try and copy others.
Drama should be taught in schools to have more artistic people.
I have been rather selective, doing not more than two or thee films a year, so that leaves me with plenty of time to prep for my plays and theatre activities.
I do a project and then I forget about it because the release of whatever work you have done is not in your hand.
I agree I'd like to do more work. But the right kind of roles has to be offered to me. I'm not saying the roles need to be realistic all the time, though that's what I like connecting with on screen.
As an actor, my desire was always to be different, there was a desire to associate yourself with projects that bring about the contemporary situation.
We have ambitions, we go on with our lives. We get married and have families. But I was interested to know what happens to those girls who become mothers and grandmothers. They sacrificed their self at a time when they were young and healthy.
It's a bit unusual that I'm the novelist and the actor who is reading out his own material.
Back in the 1990s, I had an opportunity to make a film. But I realized that it is better for me to go in stages so I could explore myself as an actor and in the process I started writing scripts.
Cinema which is well-made, for any kind of audience, is worthy of being watched by just about anybody who would like to watch a good story being told.
School days were very special to me as I never found the time to complete my graduation.
I admit TV is a far cry from the films that I started my career with, like 'Ek Doctor Ki Maut.' It's like reading Chekov and then going on to a comic strip.
I don't have any single character that is my favorite because I would like to be known for the sum total of my work and not for an individual character that I might have played.
I believe that the performance of my actors is of utmost importance to make a good film.
The director needs to have a vision and clarity in his mind. It's not enough to know the story, he or she should have the knowledge and efficiency to execute it articulately.
I am a father who never pushes or forces his children into anything.
I am very lazy.
My friend Akshay Upadhyay and I used to write poetry and read out to each other.
For a father, to separate from his son is not easy.
What's most fortunate is that once he turned 18, Shahid assisted me for a while, so we got to spend a lot of time with each other.
My son has been wiser than me in terms of his career graph. He saw to it that he became a star first and start to get all the roles that he wanted to do.
As an actor, I have always felt, everything is available in the script. If there is anything you feel the script lacks, you can have a discussion with the director and point out those.
There's no set rule, but when you look at the script, you start thinking about this person and how to create this human being on screen. You dig deeper into a script.
My job is that of an actor. As long as I get to act, get some interesting parts to play, get to be a part of interesting stories, I would certainly want to do it.
I have learnt to become patient as an actor.
Many people from the industry come up to me and say 'We don't see you onscreen much.' But where are the scripts? Do you think I am not sitting in my office and waiting for something like 'Matru' to happen to me? I would love to do four such films in a year.
I am human and get insecure because I am a middle class man and I need to feed my family and acting is the only job I know.
I feel that God has been amazingly kind to me. How many actors get to stay for 30 years and play the kind of roles that I have done?
When an actor gets an opportunity to do things, only then can he prove his mettle.
We have had examples in our industry of people working for 30-40 years because of their ability to act. Your looks leave you after a point, you don't look the same way you did when you were in your 20s or 30s. After that you have only your ability to show.
There are millions of people in the world, I have only played a few of them.
I enjoy playing different kind of people.
In theatre there is a certain discipline that you have to follow, and you have to be experienced to be performing in front of a live audience. It is satisfying to me.
I wanted to understand the whole medium and that is when I decided to do television. Once I thought that, I was confident about making a film.
As far as I am concerned the best thing that any person can have, and which I think my son has, is commitment to work and also the attitude towards it.
Living my early years in Ludhiana, the Halwara base of the Indian Air Force was very close to our house. I would see jets cruise over my head.
Women do have better roles to play, more characters are being written. For instance, Surpriya Pathak's character in 'Ram Leela' or Neena Gupta's part in 'Badhaai Ho'.'
Different kind of cinema is being created, people are coming up with different kind of scripts, they are able to come up with scripts that work with the audiences and also scripts which will have something to say to the audience, which is a heart-warming thing.
We've not given any attention to the people in their 50s and 60s, who need attention, education and engagement, in terms of the society and in terms of their identity as human beings.
The least anyone can do is pay attention to their parents and people who are elder to them.
Creativity should be balanced with commercial interests.
When you ask me why I do one film a year, it is not my fault. I've chosen what I liked from whatever work came my way.
I have loved playing every character that I essayed.
I don't think that a film that has children in it necessarily needs to be a children's film.
I feel you need to treat children as equals instead of giving them a complex - you are young, you are small, you don't know.'
I've been saying yes to almost every interesting script that comes my way.
