Mahesh Bhatt

My mother was a Muslim and dad a Hindu. I got the best upbringing that anyone could. Never did I see any angst in my family owing to that: each practiced their own religion. My existence is the harmony that these two communities can achieve if they try.

Making a film is very gratifying and intoxicating. It does great things to your self-esteem, but pushing people and mentoring them to their full potential is far more fulfilling.

I don't think the choice of launching Sunny Leone as an actor in Hindi cinema was that radical a decision.

The whole idea of 'One size fits all' is not going to work in India with a billion people.

In a country like India, with an ever-changing demography, adaptability is the most important attribute to survive in the industry.

Everyone claims to have found the 'Holy Grail' - the perfect formula that can guarantee a hit in Bollywood. But those who seriously believe in it are deluded.

The narratives in which you're born have a fierce pattern of repetition.

My mother found herself in a triangular situation of my father and his legitimate wife. I experienced the emotional trauma of that triangle in my cradle.

I come from a home where my mother was the only emotional umbrella under which we found all the warmth and comforts and sustenance. My father would come and go, and not as often as we'd want him to.

There is no denying that entertainment industries are insular, but you can't generalise that statement and apply it to everyone.

The film industry not only in India but also Hollywood is insular. It's inward-looking.

My career says that my doors will always be open for all. When an Anupam Kher walked in through my door at 28 and got 'Saaransh,' it launched his unimaginably productive career.

Human beings are free to worship anyone or anything.

Every five years, there is a shift in cinema space, but we are slow to catch that. Young people understand that shift.

I am what this country dreams of achieving: a perfect example of composite India.

The real world is harsh.

I was a dreamer, and thank God for that!

I was born on September, 20, 1948, to Nanabhai Bhatt, a Hindu, and Shirin Mohammed Ali, a Muslim. I was born after three daughters and followed by a daughter and son.

My father did not live with us. When he came home, he never took off his shoes - he wouldn't be staying. My father had another family: Although my father had two homes, he paid for our education and household expenses.

'Arth' was born at a stage of my life when I had gone through an emotional wasteland.

While the male wants to conquer the world, the woman has a take on her immediate world that is so sparklingly refreshing that the male cannot even think of it.

I was perhaps lucky to be born in a single-parent home where my mother, Shirin Mohammed Ali, was the sole figure I revered. My father's absence in my life in my formative years exposed me to only one person, who was my source of learning the lessons of life. So to me, listening to a woman and her worldly view is almost automatic.

I have great reverence for women.

Life continues, irrespective of whether we are there or not.

Rahul Roy is delusional. He wants 'Aashiqui' to end with him. When it didn't end with me, how can it end with him?

If you can't put problems in your own backyard to rest, then how can you deal with larger issues?

I was never good at school, couldn't get a job. I was a disaster when I tried to do things the way the world wanted me to.

I used to sleep with a little Ganesha under my pillow as a child; he was my favourite deity.

I have no worthwhile memories of my father, therefore no idea of what a father's role should be.

No power on earth can ever get me back to directing a commercial film.

You can't repeat the success of any movie.

I would say more power to women who scream from the rooftop about something wrong done to them, whether it is after 10 years or 20 or 50... It doesn't make a difference.

Films have to appeal to youngsters - it has to have tamasha, drama, and sensationalism.

Cinema now can't be just about introspection and atma manthan; such topics won't work.

I am not a person who believes in austerity or denial.

People love miracles; they love stories which break through adversities.

With larger-than-life films, you are lifted from your mundane, ordinary life because you empathise with the hero, and people see themselves in him.

I do not want myself to be restricted to a pigeonholed kind of filmmaker.

Modi talks about Congress Mukt Bharat. I feel this is a fascist ideology.

'Dhoka,' I think, is not just meant for Pakistan and India but for South Asia.

I'm not a stranger to the persecution that Muslims have faced over the years.

Having buildings, growth models, having great progress, flyovers, and no human being is feeling for human being is a nightmare scenario.

'Citylights' is for those people who know a lot but don't feel at all. It's time for them to feel, and this film will make those people, who know so much, feel because feeling is the life blood of human race, which is disappearing.

I am in the business of entertainment.

I have made more good films than anyone else in the country.

'Hamari Adhuri Kahani' is a very emotional perspective on a traditional Indian woman.

It would be false if I claim that the Congress has in the past not let down its ideology, especially pertaining to Muslim community.

Campaigning for Congress is an issue of conviction, and there is no element of any personal gain in it.

It's extremely important that plays reflect contemporary times and should not just be about asking for social change without having any connect with the audience.

One needs strong performance to put across a point in theatre.