“I bask in the affection I get on the streets. I recently went into the kitchen of a restaurant to meet the cooks. They were people I didn’t know, but what a joy it was meet them! Such experiences wouldn’t happen if I were doing only one kind of cinema.”

Our film industry as well as the audiences are now open to unconventional pairings and subjects, which has aided my journey greatly.

There’s a great charm in theatre; I enjoyed doing it for twelve years and did lots of plays. At this chapter of my life.

I used to follow celebrities, and I remember I watched Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt shooting for ‘Sadak’. I was standing on the road at three in the night, but little did I know that I would be making a film with Sanjay at some point in my career.

I come around to your house personally and wet your finger while you’re turning the pages.

I’m not a hero or a superstar. I’m an everyday guy. I feel happy when children approach me. I feel that something good is happening in life when little kids recognise me.

Drugs are very much a part of professional sports today, but when you think about it, golf is the only sport where the players aren’t penalized for being on grass.

No affairs for me. It is so wonderful to have a family to come home to, to sit with them, pull each other’s legs… To lose all of that for what? Who’s got the time? I’m having great fun working.

Hopefully, we’ll come to know in a few years whether it can become one of the great films.

Very few movies remain in public memory as landmark films and I want to see whether 3 Idiots will be up there with some of the wonderful films that have come out of this country…

My theory is children don’t do what you tell them to do, they do what you do. You have to always do the right thing because they follow you.

Chilli ice cream doesn’t taste bad. But I wouldn’t eat it again.

I don’t mind being identified as any character as long as I’m doing a good job as an actor. I have done all kinds of roles – from an editor, judge, police officer, murderer to a corrupt businessman.

The science of life is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long and ghastly kitchen.

Working in kitchens with Mexicans you always listen to the Spanish channel and that’s what I use. Whenever I cook I think of Spanish music, so I always have to listen to some sort of salsa. It gets your body going.

My mother and my grandmother are pioneers of Mexican cuisine in this country, so I grew up in the kitchen. My mom, Zarela Martinez, was by far my biggest influence and inspiration – and toughest critic.

It annoys the hell out of me when people say, This is the kitchen, and this is the bathroom. What am I, Helen Keller? I mean, it’s pretty obvious when you’re in a kitchen and when you’re not.

I grew up being told by my parents each time they went off to war that they may explode, so I needed to know how things like the gadgets in the kitchen worked.

I go out to the kitchen to feed the dog, but that’s about as much cooking as I do.

I used to hit the kitchen lights, cockroaches everywhere. Hit the kitchen lights, now it’s marble floors everywhere.

When I’m old and gray, I want to have a house by the sea. And paint. With a lot of wonderful chums, good music, and booze around. And a damn good kitchen to cook in.