Kabul Express’ is loosely based on the experiences my friend Rajan Kapoor and I shared in Kabul.

Every film of mine is put against ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ and it is unfair.

To have a second movie that you’re proud of and that actually turned out the way you wanted, shot by shot, I realize I’m probably going to be able to do this for a little while for my living.

That’s what film can do in a way that TV and other long-form storytelling can’t. It gives you this very immersive moment.

I did not grow up a cinefile. No one in my family was in the film business or even anything close to it.

California, that advance post of our civilization, with its huge aircraft factories, TV and film studios, automobile way of life… its flavourless cosmopolitanism, its charlatan philosophies and religions, its lack of anything old and well-tried rooted in tradition and character.

Every film set is a classroom, and every role teaches you something new about yourself

I’m not the biggest film star in the world [laughs] at all.

A big budget studio film is slower, they’ve got so much to create around you. Everything is more complicated.

Always just remember that you can never know all; you’re always going to be learning; there’s always going to be something new. I don’t think you’ll ever have it all figured out.

As long as a film stays unmade, the book is entirely yours, it belongs to the writer. As soon as you make it into a film, suddenly more people see it than have ever read the book

Films, fiction, can encompass a whole global vision on a particular subject with any story, whatever it is. You can play the story in whatever country with whatever language in whatever style you want to tell the story in.

The collective experience of watching a great film together in a room is a transcendent moment that will never die.

I was asked to go to Cannes to present Amores Perros. And little did I know that this film would be huge. I saw it for the first time in Cannes, and it was the first time I’d seen myself on such a big screen. And it had a huge impact on me – it was the strangest feeling.

The thing that’s so exciting when you’re making a film is that it can be anything and there are no limitations on it.

We have a documentary film festival in Mexico. It’s really original. It’s called Ambulante, and it’s a film festival that travels around several cities in Mexico.

I didn’t know I wanted to do films until I started to do them. Very few films are made in Mexico and film-making belonged to a very specific group, a clique.

I asked the producers when I was doing ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’ if they could give me a VHS recording of the film that I could show to my family, because in Mexico and Latin America, when you do a film, you don’t expect anybody to see it, especially not in the cinema.

It wasn’t until I was in college that I even realized how much I loved film and started to appreciate acting, this beautiful medium of artistic expression. All I wanted to do was go to college, and I thought I wanted to be a teacher.

I started missing acting when I was in school, and I realized after being in the business after however many years that I was really interested in film.

I like films and I have been watching films from a young age. So, making films happened to be a natural progression

Gangster films are exciting

When I write a story or think of a scene, I always play some song in the background. Sometimes when I don’t add a song at the writing stage, I do it while editing the film.

If I have to name someone who is responsible for me coming to films, it is Ilayaraja’s music. From a young age, I’ve been a huge fan of his music. Because of that, I studied Visual Communication.

I am totally inspired by ‘Godfather,’ one of the greatest films made. Also, I am fascinated by the thought of how someone becomes a gangster and continues to be one

If the film succeeds at the box office it is a commercial film. Otherwise it isn’t.

We seek festivals for two reasons – either to create buzz because it is a small film or to find unexplored markets outside India

We all make films to be hits.

No matter how many films a filmmaker makes, there would be very few films that are truly great, where he has got everything right

I love my family and I love my kids, but when the moments come, it’s not as though you can just substitute your own life with what you’re doing on film. You have to go to some other place where it’s bigger than your own life.

I’ve never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, then you’re hurting yourself.

Recording a song for a film doesn’t take much time; it’s hardly an hour’s job, but concerts are constant, and so is travelling, so I’ve to take time out to work on my albums because I’m passionate about creating my own music. When you love something dearly, you set your priorities accordingly.

I’ve never made a film that I didn’t believe in on some level. Even the films that didn’t work, I believed in them.

I’ve never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, then you’re hurting yourself.

In 1916, Universal Studios released the first filmed adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.’ Georges Melies made a film by that name in 1907, but, unlike his earlier adaptations of Verne, Melies’ version bears no resemblance to the book.

In 1913, the noted German actor and director Paul Wegener was making a film in Prague when he heard the legend of Rabbi Loew, who created a golem to protect the inhabitants of the Prague ghetto from persecution.

The 1910 Edison film of Frankenstein was itself a dead thing revived by technology.

In 1921, Harry Houdini started his own film company called – wait for it – the Houdini Picture Corporation.

Theatre is done largely for the love of the craft. Television makes you famous. And films immortalize you. That’s the relationship between the three.

You are probably right when you say that I could get a role in any producer’s film if I just asked.

When you are a filmmaker, you need to be rooted, because committing yourself to producing or directing a film is a good three-year process.

I am going to produce a movie of my own. I am not going to stick to the time-tested formulae of Hindi cinema. I want to make a film for the present generation. So there will be a lot of new faces in the film.

That’s what I always loved about [Federico] Fellini’s films: You see the weird joy of the weird filmmaking family and the abstract craziness that goes along with it, and there’s something about it that’s quite beautiful.

The problem with film is you never know when you’re going to be able to make a film so you can’t have people waiting around for you. Sometimes it’s fun to work with the same people and work with new people and mix it up

Nobody had his [Ed Wood’s] style. That’s something I try to do in my films. You have your own kind of cryptic messages in there – cryptic things that most people wouldn’t understand but are important to you. Things that kind of keep you going through the process.

Nobody had his [Ed Wood’s] style. That’s something I try to do in my films. You have your own kind of cryptic messages in there – cryptic things that most people wouldn’t understand but are important to you. Things that kind of keep you going through the process.

I grew up watching monster movies and horror movies, which I felt were like fairy tales and I think this always spoke to me. Something about that is symbolism – the beauty and the magic which helps me work with film and start making modern fairy tales

A gun in a film is so culturally specific to America. It looks odd in world cinema unless it’s ironic. I wonder if there are more balls in English films than guns, more nipples in French films. Guns in America’s story are a constant, a plot device, like coffee cups in European films. Guns are Hollywood

After Halle Berry does her films and Queen Latifah does her films, it’s left to all the black, Latino and Asian actresses to fight over a couple of roles. I opted for some TV. There’s just not a ton of work in film.

I play Father Francis in ‘The Exorcist Prequel.’ It’s fantastic. We are shooting in Morrocco and Rome. Paul Schrader is directing; Stellan Skarsgard plays the younger Max Von Sydow character. It’s just a fantastic script. It’s a very eerie, very scary script. It encomposes a growing dread that I think is really appropriate for the film.

TV show’s really quick. You’re in, you’re out. A film usually takes a lot longer. However, a voiceover is very much like TV in the sense that it’s really quick. For example, I did the movie Planes in one day.

TV and film for me are not as exciting as the live stand-up show and getting the immediate reaction of the crowd. TV is a lot of hurry up and wait for your shot and less immediate reaction from people.

When it’s time to film and to actually take on the role of Precious, I felt an immense responsibility to do it justice.

When I did ‘Bird,’ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.

Music is where I have the most creative freedom, but I love producing. To me, that’s kind of where all the action is. You get a chance to have your hands in every aspect of a film. From picking a director, sometimes picking a writer, to the actors, the wardrobe, set design, editing, music, and marketing.

You can measure films on box office success, or people lovin’ the movie whenever they see it. That’s what I measure my movies on. How much people love these movies after they get a chance to see them, no matter how they get a chance to see them.

One of the great bonuses of being a film actor is that I get to go to different places, meet inspiring people and learn different things. So all those details add up.

I got into film acting because I wanted to be James Dean. We lost him at a very young age – he was only 24 – but I’m in my fifthies, so there’s only so many times you can act like James Dean. I had to find new ways of expressing myself that kept me fascinated with film performance.

I love it all. I don’t want to go through my career with one hand tied behind my back. I love making kids happy. I love the midnight audience. I like intense dramas. And I like high-adrenaline action films.

I may be alone in this, but I do sense the power of film, in that movies have the ability to literally change people’s minds. That’s pretty powerful stuff when you consider that.

Pain is temporary, film is forever.

When you are given an opportunity to make a film like ‘Body of Lies’ – and I would put ‘Blood Diamond’ in the same category – of course you jump at these opportunities.

I’m working on bringing the instant film camera back as part of the future.