I know I'm a smart person, and yet I was duped by the abortion industry for eight years. Why did it take so long for me to see the truth? I don't know.
In the U.A.E. we were the least-regulated environment in the region, and over time we are seeing more and more regulation coming in. On the other hand, a central bank can overregulate and choke the economy, and then we will have a dead banking industry.
After 'Socha Na Tha' flopped, nobody wanted to work with me. I became very bitter and angry. So now when the industry and the audience accept me, I feel more empowered.
If I look at Dad's earlier work - 'Bandini,' 'Satyakam,' 'Chupke Chupke,' 'Jeevan Mrityu' - and then his later work, I realize that when something works, the industry doesn't want you to do anything else. They just typecast and milk you.
My cousins and my uncle have been iconic heroes in the industry and I don't think I'm anywhere close to that, but I'm happy that they like my work. They are my elders and it's natural for me to look up to them.
Fortunately, I got critic and audience acceptance much earlier than industry acceptance.
It's not that I don't want to do different films. The non-mainstream stuff that I did started to get successful... But for an industry which runs essentially on money, they do put you in a box.