I have spent the greater part of my life in a hotel room with seven or eight kids, looking after everyone, sorting out fights, wiping noses, handing out towels, not having a clean towel left for me.
Being the second-youngest of eight children has helped. You get used to waiting your turn even if it's just to have a go on the PlayStation. And you have to make sure you're ready to take it when it comes. It's the same in football.
My mother is very fond of cooking and whenever I am home she ensures that I eat the best food prepared by her, because of which I gain a lot of weight.
I had zero connection to Bollywood or movies when I started out. I worked in theatre for eight years where luckily Makarand Deshpande mentored me, helped me to improve my body language and voice modulation.
The first eight years in Mumbai were specially tough. I knew during the first two months of my stay that there's no point waiting for hours to meet producers. They won't meet you and definitely won't give you a role.
When I was in school, sport was given utmost importance. I think it's fantastic for character building, for team playing, and I think it's a great profile for a nation. One in every six people on Earth is an Indian, and I look forward to the day when we can compete with the heavyweights of the sporting world and do well in the medal tally.
I spent most of the Seventies living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and most of the Eighties living in Stoke-on-Trent.
I spent every night until four in the morning on my dissertation, until I came to the point when I could not write another word, not even the next letter. I went to bed. Eight o'clock the next morning I was up writing again.
I write by stealing time. The hours in the day have never felt as if they belonged to me. The greatest number has belonged to my day job as a physician and professor of medicine - eight to 12 hours, and even more in the early days.
I'm a born athlete. Weight-lifting is in my blood. I used to do the powerlifting thing. I gained a little weight, but I still got it; I'm mad built.
