Quotes from Sanjay Leela Bhansali

What's life without risks? When I made 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,' everybody said in India you can never have a husband say that I am uniting my wife with her lover. The male audience would reject it, and it is a male audience and hero-oriented industry.

I can't begin to describe how humiliating it is for a law-abiding citizen to be cross-examined in a court of law for a crime he hasn't committed.

I love humour, and I can laugh at myself.

I often love to hate Aishwarya

Many people ask me why I chose to remake 'Devdas.' I wanted to make a film that celebrated grandeur and grace.

I think suffering has always been an incentive for my creativity.

There is no such thing as human perfection, and yet when you hear Lataji sing, you wonder how she sang that song so beautifully, so perfectly. Or, how Kumar Gandharva touched your soul so powerfully.

The media should be ready to cover every event at the Oberois' residence. If Vivek's dog has dysentery tomorrow, we should be prepared to hear Vivek talk about it on camera for three hours.

The multiplexes audience has one way of thinking. When they are all sitting together temperamentally, there is room for a filmmaker to reach out to a far larger audience in a comfortable way.

It is very difficult for anyone to predict how a film will do. It depends on so many things: the mood of the audience, the state of their mind at the time, how they have reacted to the whole treatment.

My 'Devdas' was a tribute to all the mainstream masters, from Mehboob Khan, K. Asif, and V. Shantaram to Raj Kapoor. I am not saying critics shouldn't have criticised my film. But they should have judged the film within the genre and format that I had chosen.

I think caring too much about the economics starts affecting the creative aspect of the film. That is a dangerous process for a filmmaker. He should make his film without having to worry about how much it has cost or how much it will be sold for.

The film industry functions on fraternal feelings. If there is a problem, we solve it in-house.

To me, love means being free of your own bondage and connecting to another soul.

The equality of men and women is not possible because both are different. A mountain is a mountain, and a river is a river.

My soul needs music all the time.

I am not popular socially. I am uncomfortable around people.

People might think that I'm inaccessible, unapproachable, and dark. In many ways, my characters are uncomfortable to interact with, but that's not me.

My mother is special to me. She understands me. She has no expectations from me.

I write all my scripts with Salman in mind. He understands me perfectly on the sets.

Life is not only about dark nights; it's also about beautiful, sunshiny mornings.

There was no fear of failure when I made 'Bajirao Mastani.'

The first film that I saw of Shammi Kapoor was 'Bhramachari.' I instantly fell in love with the film and connected with Shammiji. His style was natural and unique.

I was criticised for making 'Devdas' so ostentatious. But stark and realistic cinema isn't the only real cinema in this country.