Whenever I work on any Yash Raj film, I feel that they believed in me, and that's why I have been able to be in films today. I had no connection with movies apart from watching them.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There was a time when I desperately wanted to be part of a Yash Chopra film, not because he was a great director, but because I was an outsider and I wanted that validation of being accepted in the film industry.
My whole career, only one person has stepped up to back me. All these people say they like your films. They say this and they say that, but no one actually does anything.
I think the way it works is that when you're casting a movie, you usually want to work with people that you believe in.
I've never made a film that I didn't believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I've always given everything to it. That's kind of how I approach life. I can't help it. There's no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.
I know people from working with them on films, but they're not the ones I would meet up with... I'm just a normal person!
You have these relationships with people that you care about, but I also try to stick to my job as filmmaker and be fair and truthful about what I saw and my experience of the people, hopefully informed by a deep understanding of them.
I'd like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don't have misconceptions - they understand. I believe that.
We all do films believing in them completely, but sometimes, the audiences like what we like, and other times, they don't.
Of course, like all film-makers I've been mesmerised by cinema since I was a child.
I don't necessarily see myself as an experienced filmmaker just because I've been in a few movies.