I'm still in awe of Madhuri. I've grown up watching her movies, and to see her in a film like 'Dedh Ishqiya,' which is quite unlike her previous work, was wonderful.
I remember, during an ad shoot, Anurag said to me that you are doing my film, and I was wondering do we really get films so easily. I thought you have to struggle and all. But he kept his word and offered me 'Gangs Of Wasseypur.'
No one likes it when their personal life is talked about, and I am no exception. But I guess it's the price an actor has to pay for being in the public eye.
I make it a point to pick films that tell you a story in an engaging way. I can't compromise on the content. The script has to be substantial and impactful.
It is a challenge to work away from India and with a cast and crew from all over the world. But it's also very gratifying, and you learn so much by just being with them.
As a woman, absolutely, I have had to deal with people making advances at me, but not just people from the business of film industry but people across different professions and different strata. I think it has a lot to do with power; it is not only limited to the film business.
In India and elsewhere in the world, the moment a woman speaks out against harassment, people sort of start making all sorts of character judgments about her, about her morality, about what she was wearing, and all such things, and I think that is not fair.
If a woman is saying something out loud, she is asking for help, and you have no business to character assassinating her. You have to reach out to her and help her and protect her, and I think we need to protect our women, and we need to protect our children.
A lot of issues that we have in the world today rise from the fact that we do not know enough about each other's cultures, that we don't respect each other's origins and there is so much negativity and strife around because we don't know where the other person is coming from.
I have been told too much - to talk less, to keep my opinions to myself, to not sound intelligent - all this was told to me so that I could fit in. But I never thought I fit in anyway. So if you don't fit in, at least stand out.