Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I had a press conference and I fell down on stage! Because I was in a skirt, dude. And there was this genius on stage and someone told me please sit and I went to sit and he pulled the chair off from under me! I did my whole thing, after that, I was really upset.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I'm obsessed with people, I'm obsessed with human behavior. I just watch people.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I draw cinematic and photography and art references from everywhere. That's part of my job. So yes, you watch films, you see artists for palettes, photographers for mood.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

The class system in India is very hard, and it is very unfair.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

The biggest piece is my family... From watching films like The Godfather on our dining room wall, to having a great relationship with my sibling. Or going on weekend trips with our cousins to the beach and eating all day... it's been a crazy childhood; a 'bohemian one'.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I only drink wine, beer, and champagne. I've never had hard liquor, I've never had a whiskey drink in my life. I just don't like it.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

As a filmmaker when you show your film to anybody, you want it to be liked. You want the reviews to be positive. After watching your film, you want people to feel good.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I have to have a story I really want to tell, and then it makes sense to put things out there. So if you see, 2018 was again crazy for me. I did 'Lust Stories', 'Made in Heaven' and 'Gully Boy'.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

Freedom is a sentiment associated with the youth. It is rebellion. It is what you feel at that age, and it is very important.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

But disco is the remedy for ghosts.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

We need to develop artists who are not just scoring films. I'm hoping 'Gully Boy' can help with that.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

But if you can empathise with a character and if you can emotionally resonate with that character and understand their emotional journey, I think you are home.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

When you colonise someone's dream, that's the worst thing you can do.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

It is a part of us, film-makers and audiences; what we can't say with dialogues, we say with a song. We tell stories through songs, look at our folk cultures.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I don't really know a normal family. In fact, I don't know a perfect person. So, how can a family be perfect and frankly if there are any, they will be very boring like I won't want them over for dinner.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

The whole class system has oppressed so many people and given them such lack of opportunity. They are fed such strong narratives that this is where you belong and this is where you are.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

We were allowed to make mistakes. I mean that is a real privilege, to be able to go your own way, find your voice, just have a support system that allows you to do all that.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

When you're scoring music for a film, it has to be interwoven with the narrative, it has to reflect the mood, the ethos.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

I like hip-hop personally. It is a genre I am very attached to and have been listening to all my life. But I have always engaged with foreign artistes, never with mainstream Indian hip-hop rap space.

Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar

It is nice to be out there, amongst contemporaries on a global scale. You meet different people, see different things, meet different producers, eventually grow to collaborate in different ways. The world is getting smaller. It's nice not to be insular.