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In India, it's hard not to have Gandhi as a hero. To give up everything - including power and money - and to live for his countrymen, that beats everything else. He's a role model of selflessness.

I guess the most surprising discovery was how long Gandhi remained loyal to the ideal of the British Empire, even in India.

Rahul Gandhi is very idealistic and a very decent human being. He has real concerns for the downtrodden.

Mahatma Gandhi was someone who demonstrated the tremendous power of leadership by example.

My father thought Gandhi was a great man. I suppose subconsciously, consciously even, I was aware that I wanted to please him and Ma, so I thought doing something like 'Gandhi' would be phenomenal.

My main aim in 'Gandhi' was to project him as the vanguard of non-violence. Nowhere in the world has a movement of non-cooperation sans violence received so much support from masses as Gandhi's movement in India did. He was, to a great extent, responsible for freeing his nation from the British Raj.

Ben Kingsley was my ideal choice for Gandhi, and he really lived up to the expectations of an international audience. I did not find any Indian actor worthy to perform the role of Gandhi in the early Eighties, though there were brilliant performers like Naseeruddin Shah in India.

Dr. King used Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and to passive resistance.

I believe that Gandhi was correct. Non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to bring about change that allows people to enjoy the change and not get killed in the process.

'Gandhi' was a well-made film but surely not my best. It had flaws, which I understand two-and-a-half decades after I directed it. I will never call it a propaganda film for the Indian Congress, but it could have been made better had I concentrated on certain minute details.