Yes, a family is interesting. You can get a lot of drama in the conflicts there. It's like the sea. It seems calm, but inside there is conflict.

I am hopeful that films can connect people who are in conflict in a separated world.

When I was 27, I won an honorable mention in a scriptwriting contest and got a television job as an assistant director.

My mother was really against it when I said I wanted to make films. She said that I should be a civil servant because that was safe, and it had security. But my mother was always very proud of my movies and would give videocassettes of them to all the neighbours.

My mother was the youngest of 11 kids and I grew up in her family's household. I was blessed to have my dad in my life and his family lived right down the street from the church.

In India, by and large, women are not educated enough to be bread winners and, within the moorings of traditional cultures, do not have the courage and the capacity to leave the matrimonial home. Given the inequality prevalent in family structures, the woman's right to opt out is suicidal.

I'm very close with my family, so my mom is part of my entourage.

My parents and my family really tried to maintain as much of a normal environment as possible. When I went home, it wasn't Keshia Knight Pulliam the actress, the glitz, the glamour. It was Keshia the daughter. Oldest of four children, who washed the dishes and did everything she was supposed to do.