ANUBHAV SINHA

When my second film 'Dus' released, I was still getting compliments for 'Tum Bin' because it was a hit on satellite channels.

When you make the biggest film in the history of Bollywood, 'Ra.One,' and get so much flak, it drains you... haunts you for years.

I aspired to make 'Tum Bin II' better than my first film, if not as good as 'Tum Bin.'

After the #MeToo movement, I told my team to hire as many women as possible. So there are always a lot of women in my team. I talk to them and they read the script and come up with their own suggestions.

In 2001 when 'Tum Bin' released we got 90 to 100 screens. India had around 1000 screens at that time.

I have a beautiful sofa, which is my writing corner, on which I sit every day and look outside the window.

I don't even know whether I am a savarna or not, I am a Kayasth, so I am not Brahmin or Kshatriya or Vaishya or Shudra.

Western audiences are way more forgiving for the image of a star.

Although everything has a political connotation today, 'Mulk' is a social film, to be honest. It is not about any political leader, party or ideology.

I will continue to make films to express my thoughts that come from my observations, from the society we live in.

'Mulk' is a story of a Muslim family whose one member turns out to be a terrorist. How that family gets cornered and persecuted after that in our society is what it is all about. I have tried to deal with some of the burning issues of our times.

I know that I don't have a problem with women knowing more or learning more or performing better or making more money.

The people I met for the first time in the period when I was making films like 'Tum Bin,' 'Ra.One,' 'Dus,' 'Cash' would often remark that I was very unlike the person who had made those films. This is not the best thing for a film-maker to hear because your film should reflect your personality, thinking, philosophy and character.

Banaras is a mystical city. It is not easy to know that city well.

I am a secular man who believes in inclusion, so balance comes across organically.

We live in a world where corporates are trying to prove that water is a commodity. The economics of this world is inclined towards creating a divide between rich and poor, and religion is the most convenient tool.

Around 2013-14, I started ranting on Twitter about the communal dysfunction that society was getting into. And I would have fights with trolls.

When I hear of nationalism in my country today from the youngsters, I want to sit them down and tell them that flags and songs are not nationalism. Stopping at the traffic signal, opening the door for a lady, doing something for your country is nationalism.

I'll keep venting my anger through my films.

'Thappad' is dedicated to my mother. I've assumed her first-name as my middle-name for this film and I'm billed 'Anubhav Susheela Sinha' in the credits of this film.

I keep finding good stories so I don't see a reason not to work.

Till 'Mulk' and 'Article 15,' I used to deny that there is a change. Now I feel there is certainly a change, what kind of change, I don't know. Now I get attracted to different things - story or a performance. Earlier I used to get attracted to grand visuals, size of the film and how big the starcast was. Now I am not attracted to these things.

I don't think I have tried to give any message through 'Mulk.' But I have put certain things on the table which are usually discussed in the living rooms, not in our cinema.

I grew up at Kabir Choura in Varanasi in the 1970s. It was an era when communal riots used to happen every now and then at different places.

Generally, drama films are made with stars - I broke the rule unknowingly.