“Few people know that I love local dhaba food. It is the best!”
“I don't claim to have led a saintly life. There have been a lot of one-sided love stories in my life.”
“For good or bad, there is a certain level of generalisation when it comes to my work. I want to break that perception. My decision to direct 'Bombay Talkies' or to present 'The Lunchbox' is an attempt to do that. These are the films that gel well with my sensibility, and it's unfortunate, it's not the perception out there.”
“My instinct about a human being is paramount. For me, when a director has walked into my room or an assistant that I have hired, who has later gone on to become a director, is purely based on human instinct, be it Ayan Mukerji, Karan Malhotra, Punit Malhotra or Tarun Mansukhani. I am very susceptible to human energy and energy of spaces.”
“'The Lunchbox' is the kind of cinema that is true to its word and not cluttered or corrupted by some of the mainstream pre-requisites. I love the way I make movies, but there are certain stories that need to be told in a certain way, and 'The Lunchbox' is that movie, and I'm so proud to present this movie.”
“I am incapable of directing a film like 'Agneenath.' I can do only what I am good at, so I would have been the worst choice to direct it. It has aggression, action and an inherent violence in it - things I am not capable of directing in my films.”
“I grew up as the only child, and we did not have a large family. So for me and my mother, our friends tend to become our family.”
“My father was 40 when he had me, so he was more a grandparent than a parent.”
“Tell me, who doesn't want to have a family to extend himself/herself?”
“I feel what a spouse can do for you, no child or parent can. Just that if you get the right connect with your spouse, you get it going right.”