If I criticize my country, it is indeed very painful for me. It doesn't make me happy. But, if I see something wrong, it becomes my duty to speak up.
Being good or evil has nothing to do with religion.
I think our cinema has stayed in its adolescent stage largely because of our obsession with and our dependence upon stars to make our movies. The stars, being only too human, realise that this is the case, and so they milk it for whatever it's worth, and who can blame them?
Actors have to learn that they are as important to a movie as the camera is, as important as the sound is, and less important than the script is.
Acting is learnt, not taught.
When I first dreamt of becoming a movie star, I wanted to be a Gary Cooper: I wanted to be rich and famous, living in palaces and wearing dark glasses and white suits.
The ballooning budgets of Bollywood are getting out of hand, and it's important for people to realise that you don't need Rs 20 crore to make a good, commercially viable film.
There's so much hocus-pocus about acting styles; there's too much mysticism attached to it. But it's a craft like any other - it's something you have to work hard at.
My relationship with my father still troubles me because it never got resolved, and there was no closure. There was a lot of bitterness, but having written about it, I found that I was able to overcome that bitterness and look at the relationship anew.
I realise that I have made quite a few of the same mistakes with my kids that my dad made: not so much in trying to determine their lives for them but in terms of trying to discipline them.
There are a lot of people in my family who should have become actors.
As an actor, you have got to learn your job as thoroughly as you can. If you know your job, then there's nothing that can stop you. Because the bottom line is that only good actors will get work.
I do what work I get. I'm disappointed half the time.
There is no such thing as serious cinema in India.
The stuff that is done on Broadway is hardly theatre. It is part magic show, part rock concert, and part conjuring things.
To me, the most important elements in a theatre are the actors and the texts.
When my bank balance runs low, then I sign a big Bollywood monstrous movie, and I make sure that I am safe for the next few years.
A lot of scripts are written with an eye on what will be popular or what will titillate or what this actor can do well. I don't think those kinds of scripts ever work.
You can't make a film for your personal satisfaction. That is why I detest the cinema of people like Mani Kaul.
Everyone equates good cinema with boring shots and boring films - where a character takes 10 minutes to walk down a corridor, and still nothing happens at the end of the shot. Those films tried to be cool and fashionable by dispensing with drama, which, in my opinion, is absolute nonsense.
