It used to bug me that I couldn't even afford to take my family for a proper holiday. I didn't have any professional knowledge, and getting a photographer's job in a magazine was out of the question. So, armed with a Pentax K1000, I started going to various maidans of Mumbai, looking for subjects.

For me, a director is a director immaterial of the gender. At the end of the day, the audience is only interested in watching a good film.

To find one's calling is perhaps not the easiest thing in the world, but probably the most important.

Nothing was planned in my career. I just went with the flow and took everything that came to me. Selling potato chips was obvious, as it was a family business. When friends suggested I should try theatre, I gave it a shot. Then I did a lot of advertisements, and then movies happened.

I am not very fond of spotlight or even, for that matter, money. I appreciate the small things that give me joy. The most precious forms of happiness often come from things that money cannot buy.

Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.

My books are about ordinary people, like you, me, people on the street, people who really have an expectation of reasonable happiness in life, want their life to have a sense of security and predictability, who want to belong to something bigger than them, who want love and affection in their life, who want a good future for the children.

Listening to the stories my colleagues are researching and grappling with - in terms of access to documents, psychological understanding of their subjects, artful composition and determination to extrapolate from an individual's life lessons and insights that we can all learn from - I am each time overwhelmed by joy.