Quotes from Mahesh Bhatt

When the film industry moves to the 21st century, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the money used in film-making is clean and devoid of any underworld connections.

I love working with newcomers.

I can be unhappy with the Congress, but I cannot give up on its ideology.

India will not function if you do not believe in unity in diversity.

There is no denying that entertainment industries are insular, but you can't generalise that statement and apply it to everyone.

The world is not a static place. People change, evolve.

Vijay Anand's death marks the passing away of a true, original mind. Vijay had charisma and cinematic dazzle. He was the first who gave Indian film directors the status of a star.

My father did not live with us. When he came home, he never took off his shoes - he wouldn't be staying. My father had another family: Although my father had two homes, he paid for our education and household expenses.

If the story-teller is to nourish the roots of his culture, society must set him free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

My mother was a Muslim and dad a Hindu. I got the best upbringing that anyone could. Never did I see any angst in my family owing to that: each practiced their own religion. My existence is the harmony that these two communities can achieve if they try.

I'm not a stranger to the persecution that Muslims have faced over the years.

With larger-than-life films, you are lifted from your mundane, ordinary life because you empathise with the hero, and people see themselves in him.

I would rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent.

I have made more good films than anyone else in the country.

I am an absolute atheist.

And I implore those who hide behind the high sounding phrase called tradition, to realise that they throw this word around only to mask their unwillingness to change - Mahesh Bhatt

Words are the map not the territory, they are the finger pointing towards the moon not the moon itself.