“Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life.”

I don’t want the fear of failure to stop me from doing what I really care about.

Black Lives Matter and women’s voices are a vital part of any movement for change.

If I’ve learned anything, it’s really just to stop trying to find answers and certainties.

Believe in yourself and go for it.

Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented, their potential astonishingly untapped.

Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented, their potential astonishingly untapped.

The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb.

The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb.

Supporting women’s and girls organisations is the single greatest hope we have for worldwide transformative change.

Taking action means saying ‘no’ to indifference. If there is a war to be waged, it is the war against the indifference which is eating away at our societies.

Reading is good for your imagination.

I’m reading so much and exposing myself to so many new ideas. It almost feels like the chemistry and the structure of my brain is changing so rapidly sometimes.

I’m a perfectionist, so my bossiness definitely comes out.

I’ve always said, stuff the engagement ring! Just build me a really big library.

If you truly pour your heart into what you believe in, even if it makes you vulnerable, amazing things can and will happen.

The reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work.

I know film industry is not a very healthy place to be in.

It was only after Pather Panchali had some success at home that I decided to do a second part. But I didn’t want to do the same kind of film again, so I made a musical.

I’ve made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.

The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream.

Sometimes a director is making three films. Perhaps he is shooting a film in Madras and a film in Bombay and he can’t leave Madras as some shooting has to be done, so he directs by telephone. The shooting takes place. On schedule.

Whatever happens, happens for the better. I was meant to do ‘Raabta.’ Every film has its destiny, and it’s the film that chooses you.

Sex is not required to sell my film. My name is enough.

The trouble with a movie is that it’s old before it’s released. It’s no accident that it comes in a can.