Quotes from Aparna Sen

It is time that the female gaze made its presence felt both in cinema and in a world that's been driven by intolerance, greed, hate and lust. We need to make gentler, more inclusive films where multiple voices may be heard.

My self-confidence doesn't come from my looks.

You have woman filmmakers, who have a male gaze. They play according to the rules of the patriarchal system and make a success of it.

The very act of voting is a political act.

Of course, I write. I have stories to tell. But I don't want to do superficial stuff any more.

Someone should tell the fundamentalists that even Advaita philosophy in Hinduism talks of oneness in all existence.

Sufism states that deep within, everyone is the same.

Male filmmakers only need to tap their female selves in order to develop their female gaze as many great filmmakers have done. But why is it important to do so? Because the world has been run by aggressive males and landed itself in a fine mess.

While I think love is a beautiful emotion, I can't make simple love stories any more. In the time that I have, I would like to make films about things that move and bother me.

I certainly am a feminist but, in my cinema, I don't talk about any 'isms'. I deal only with individuals; even if an 'ism' surfaces, it is not underlined.

Yugant' is not a feminist film at all. It shows how the disintegration of the marital relationship is part of a greater disintegration all around of us of ecology and values.

It's so important for me to keep a good house. I take a lot of pleasure in cooking and I think there is a lot in common between cooking and film-making. You put all these ingredients together to make something wholesome. Except the rewards in cooking come a little sooner.

My personal fave is 'The Japanese Wife', because I think I achieved a lot of what I wanted to do. I wanted that Japanese minimalism in the film, which I managed to get somewhat.

I hate being late. I am always punctual. In fact, I am known for it.

Without the huge budgets, mainstream Bengali cinema falls flat on its face.

We have inherited both Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray. We love them and we respect them and we adore them, so we also have the right to critique them.

A lot of us were worried that the secular fabric of the country was under threat and it was time that citizens begin to speak out. Hence we called ourselves Citizen Speak India.

It is the responsibility of a director to introduce their politics in their films, and whether you like it or not your politics will be reflected unless you are an opportunist which some directors are.

This politics is bound to be reflected in the work of a serious filmmaker. When I make a film, I try to tell a human story to the best of my ability. I do not set out either to preach messages or purely to entertain.

At the drop of a hat, people have begun to take offence. You can't write, paint, make films without worrying about some faction or other whose 'sentiments' will be hurt!

It's difficult to do a love scene in Indian cinema. The censors are sitting on top of your head.

I'm very heavily trolled, but one learns to ignore such thing.

I let the images crowd my mind before I start writing a script.

We think we can control life by controlling our immediate circumstances. But we can't!