Quotes from Mahesh Bhatt

It's always better to make a hero than lean on one. My goal is to emulate China in the filmmaking business, not Los Angeles.

The whole idea of 'One size fits all' is not going to work in India with a billion people.

I believe that, at times, if some of us are almost too critical of our society, it's because our sensitivity and our concern for justice makes us aware that our nation falls terribly short of its highest potential.

Making a film is very gratifying and intoxicating. It does great things to your self-esteem, but pushing people and mentoring them to their full potential is far more fulfilling.

I feel it is the believers who are most dangerous for the secular framework of a nation.

I was a dreamer, and thank God for that!

The real world is harsh.

My teacher once told me – "No one is perfect……..that is why pencils have erasers."

Men who create power make an indispensable contribution to a nation's greatness. But, men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.

Campaigning for Congress is an issue of conviction, and there is no element of any personal gain in it.

Without a good story, a franchise won't work.

'Blood Money' was a stand-alone film, but we worked double for it. We realised how difficult it is to sensitise people to anything new, especially when you don't have a star.

India was going though a difficult time in 1997. We had revolving door governments.

Men like Sunil Dutt should not be mourned, only envied for their greatness.

We as men, need to give the Indian women all the strength that she needs, rightfully asking to be able to walk with head held high.

I don't give a tinker's damn for posterity.

In a country like India, with an ever-changing demography, adaptability is the most important attribute to survive in the industry.

While the male wants to conquer the world, the woman has a take on her immediate world that is so sparklingly refreshing that the male cannot even think of it.

Everyone claims to have found the 'Holy Grail' - the perfect formula that can guarantee a hit in Bollywood. But those who seriously believe in it are deluded.

'Citylights' is for those people who know a lot but don't feel at all. It's time for them to feel, and this film will make those people, who know so much, feel because feeling is the life blood of human race, which is disappearing.

I was perhaps lucky to be born in a single-parent home where my mother, Shirin Mohammed Ali, was the sole figure I revered. My father's absence in my life in my formative years exposed me to only one person, who was my source of learning the lessons of life. So to me, listening to a woman and her worldly view is almost automatic.

I felt it was a privilege that I came from such a rich background. I had the best of both worlds. My mother was a Shia Muslim, while my father was a janoi-clad man. He never pretended to be secular.

Human beings are free to worship anyone or anything.

Cinema now can't be just about introspection and atma manthan; such topics won't work.