“At the age when Bengali youth almost inevitably writes poetry, I was listening to European classical music.”

I think they quite like me when I work because I’m one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don’t bring their costs in back home, once they’re shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.

Well the Bombay film wasn’t always like how it is now. It did have a local industry. There were realistic films made on local scenes. But it gradually changed over the years.

Ever since Two Daughters I’ve been composing my own music.

You cannot go beyond a certain limit in your expenditure if you want to bring back money from your local market, which is very small after Pakistan.

For a film maker, an Oscar is like a Nobel Prize, you know. So I am very happy… delighted. There is nothing more after this. I cannot hope to get anything more prestigious.

Particularly in the final stages I always find that I’m rushed. It’s dangerous when you’re rushed in the editing stage, most of my early films are flawed in the cutting.

When I’m shooting on location, you get ideas on the spot – new angles. You make not major changes but important modifications, that you can’t do on a set. I do that because you have to be economical.

I was interested in both Western and Indian classical music.

What is attempted in these film is of course a synthesis. But it can be seen by someone who has his feet in both cultures. Someone who will bring to bear on the films involvement and detachment in equal measure.

My films play only in Bengal, and my audience is the educated middle class in the cities and small towns. They also play in Bombay, Madras and Delhi where there is a Bengali population.

I had developed this habit of writing scenarios as a hobby. I would find out which stories had been sold to be made into films and I would write my own treatment and then compare it.

The director is the only person who knows what the film is about.

Most of the top actors and actresses may be working in ten or twelve films at the same time, so they will give one director two hours and maybe shoot in Bombay in the morning and Madras in the evening. It happens.

I wouldn’t mind taking a rest for three or four months, but I have to keep on making films for the sake of my crew, who just wait for the next film because they’re not on a fixed salary.

I don’t start a film with the heroine but with the cinema subject. If there is a woman in the story, she has to be of a particular type. It’s not as if I start with Madhuri Dixit and then think what kind of film.

The conception of background music is changing. You use less and less of it these days.

I don’t know what the big deal is about old age. Old people who shine from the inside look 10 to 20 years younger.

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.

You will never age for me, nor fade, nor die.

Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age.

Madness is something rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule.

Look at the bright side no matter how old you are, you are younger than you’ll ever be again.

A man’s age is something impressive, it sums up his life.

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.