Quotes from Sharmila Tagore

Every age bracket has to be respected and it should be embraced naturally.

It's really rewarding working with young people.

I wanted to be a painter.

I still vividly remember when I was working in 'Kashmir Ki Kali,' I had no idea about lip-syncing the song 'Diwana Hua Badal' sung by Asha Bhosle and the scene was to be shot in the Dal Lake in Kashmir.

We used to do four or five films at a time and were not able to experiment with too many things. But, the heart was in the right place and everybody worked passionately. We had wonderful directors like Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Raj Kapoor.

Society is patriarchal, so film industry by definition is certainly patriarchal. The male gaze dominated.

I was brought up in a Bengali family. We were three girls and never made to feel any lesser than men.

I am a Bengali, I like my rice.

Besides having lived and worked in Maharashtra for several years, working in a Marathi film was quite a challenge.

People judge us looking from the outside. They don't really know what is going on in my life. There are hundreds of perspectives out there. I cannot live up to all the expectations.

When you come to the set, and are aware of the limitations of the script or the director, don't expect the pigs to fly.

In my time, Mother's Day wasn't celebrated the way it is now. In fact, there used to be no Mother's Day for a long time.

To be a real man, I think you have to be supportive of each other and to be a real woman you have to be supportive of your man, and the man has to do the same thing, only then he would be a real man.

I felt so much closer to my mother after I had babies. It bonds a mother and daughter more.

I don't enjoy going to a very big wedding or a party or a huge gathering where there are lots of people. I enjoy small groups.

Except for the pollution, I love everything about Delhi.

Aradhana' was a very big hit while 'Avishkaar' is a cult film.

The best encouragement is when your films run and people who watch it say 'Well done.'

I don't think I was pregnant during 'Aradhana.' But yes, during 'Safar' and 'Choti Bahu' I was pregnant and quite unwell in the last phase of my pregnancy. Then during 'Besharam' I was pregnant with Sabaa.

You are who you are, why should you deny your past?

I know that we have to get in there and do something if we want to change the system and get a better government. But the whole task is very daunting. If I join either the Congress or the BJP, I will be forced to follow their systems and then I may not be able to do anything significant to change things.

I worked with three designers in my heydays - Bhanu Aathiya, Shalini Shah and Mani Rabadi. Out of these, Mani was the least assertive and aggressive. I remember Bhanu used to be quite insistent and particular about her fees etc whereas Mani was too soft-spoken.

I like to contribute as much as possible to some of the NGOs that I know and in the areas that I like to contribute to. These include primary health, primary education, children's issues and AIDS.

There's nothing like young children's energy... They are always curious, and enthusiastic about many different things.