While we were filming 'Munna Bhai MBBS,' we didn't think we were doing some kind of mainstream cinema. I only knew that I was doing a different kind of cinema.

The more you succeed, the more you want people to love your efforts.

At the end of the day, you don't remember 'Mother India' or 'Pyaasa' for the business it did, you remember them because they had a good story to tell.

There is no good or bad cinema, there are films that connect either less or more with audience.

The pressure is always there to make good films, but that is more from your mindset, either you have it or you don't have it.

One must always attempt to make good films, even if you fail it is ok. It is a journey, you have both good and bad days.

A director should be in a position where he is only directing. On the sets, he is only looking at the performances, thinking 'How I am going to shoot this?'

I would say films inspire me more than the makers.

Attenborough's 'Gandhi' shook me as a filmmaker.

Dad had a huge influence on me. I really look up to him for his brave acts. He was an outspoken man. For him, if it was the right thing, he would stand up for the smallest guy around him.

In 'Sanju,' there are too many colours. Some other filmmaker could have taken a dark side to that story.

My natural bend is to get attracted towards things that have been an influence in my life.

I think I have taken more holidays with Boman than I have with my wife.

I feel the primary job of cinema is to entertain.

I'm absolutely open to scripts written by someone else.

Every film is a journey.

I like playing with languages and dialects as we have so many in India. Adding a dialect just makes the dialogues more colorful.

Very honestly, I don't feel 'Munnabhai' is a comedy film. I seriously feel it is a very emotional film.

I don't think anything comes naturally; you just have to work very hard.

Making a film confusing does not make it intelligent.

An editor does not just join shots. He creates emotions out of the shots.

Religion is man-made. Every religion says my 'God is the best.'

I try and get what I want using the strengths that the actors have.

You never know the depth of an actor.

100 years of Indian cinema has happened. Anything you do, feels like it has already been done. The struggle is to find a new and unique idea.

A lot of my writing and my detailing of scenes are based on my observations of life in Nagpur.

I've often been asked why my shot-taking is not stylish, why I don't think about visual statements. The truth is, style is irrelevant. I never think of the shot as much as I think of the characters and what they are saying and doing.

I have been in advertising and I know my craft well, but ultimately in cinema every scene has to matter, and that has to do with the writing.

Taking nuances from real life will help you make scenes that have never been done before. It keeps the story interesting.

I feel some people are cynical by nature. You show them anything, they only see the problems and negatives.

You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don't fake it.

In Hollywood, the system is so streamlined, the administration is in place. That's why every six months Spielberg is able to make a film.

Scale is very easy actually. Put a camera on a jib or a drone and get bloody big shots on big sets, it's very easy. But then you're distracted. If you're looking at the shot, you aren't following the story any more.

Nagpur was a very small town. There was no exposure to different kinds of films or world cinema. Only Manmohan Desai films.

For me, cinema is happiness.

Whenever I finish a film, I feel that this is the worst film that I have made. This is bound to happen because while writing, directing and editing a film, I would have lived it 5000 times. Naturally, one tends to loose objectivity.

So you know, as a filmmaker you have to get it all right in the writing stage. After that, one has to leave it on the judgement of your trusted ones and the audiences.

I am not really worried about how others perceive me.

When I make a film, the yardstick is my mind. If I laugh at the jokes and feel sad at the serious undersides, then the subject works.

No one sets out to write escapism as a film's subject matter unless, maybe, you are making a fantasy flick.

Assuming audiences to be dumb, that's a big fallacy.

I have the highest respect for the concept of 'Advait' - the oneness of all humans - that is central to Indian culture, thought, and religion.

As writers, we are sketching people all the time when we write fiction.

Without its roots in reality, I don't think escapism can survive.

Bad choices make good stories.

When you focus on your own work, it all falls in place. People respect you.

In non-fiction, I like Wayne Dyer. I have a compilation of his best quotes near my bed! To me he's one of the finest authors.

I edit as I write and shoot. Any extra line, any pause that I know will get chopped on the editing table is done away with then and there.

Writing is a lonely process.

Filmmaking is a very collaborative art. Unlike a painting that an artist paints sitting by himself, as a director, you have to work with a team.