The director needs to have a vision and clarity in his mind. It's not enough to know the story, he or she should have the knowledge and efficiency to execute it articulately.

I am a father who never pushes or forces his children into anything.

Every actor must go through the process of learning and not just be in a hurry to become famous. They should learn to live in small amounts and not to try and copy others.

I have been rather selective, doing not more than two or thee films a year, so that leaves me with plenty of time to prep for my plays and theatre activities.

I do a project and then I forget about it because the release of whatever work you have done is not in your hand.

I agree I'd like to do more work. But the right kind of roles has to be offered to me. I'm not saying the roles need to be realistic all the time, though that's what I like connecting with on screen.

As an actor, my desire was always to be different, there was a desire to associate yourself with projects that bring about the contemporary situation.

It's a bit unusual that I'm the novelist and the actor who is reading out his own material.

I believe that the performance of my actors is of utmost importance to make a good film.

I am very lazy.

My friend Akshay Upadhyay and I used to write poetry and read out to each other.

For a father, to separate from his son is not easy.

What's most fortunate is that once he turned 18, Shahid assisted me for a while, so we got to spend a lot of time with each other.

My son has been wiser than me in terms of his career graph. He saw to it that he became a star first and start to get all the roles that he wanted to do.

As an actor, I have always felt, everything is available in the script. If there is anything you feel the script lacks, you can have a discussion with the director and point out those.

There's no set rule, but when you look at the script, you start thinking about this person and how to create this human being on screen. You dig deeper into a script.

My job is that of an actor. As long as I get to act, get some interesting parts to play, get to be a part of interesting stories, I would certainly want to do it.

I have learnt to become patient as an actor.

Many people from the industry come up to me and say 'We don't see you onscreen much.' But where are the scripts? Do you think I am not sitting in my office and waiting for something like 'Matru' to happen to me? I would love to do four such films in a year.

I am human and get insecure because I am a middle class man and I need to feed my family and acting is the only job I know.

I feel that God has been amazingly kind to me. How many actors get to stay for 30 years and play the kind of roles that I have done?

When an actor gets an opportunity to do things, only then can he prove his mettle.

We have had examples in our industry of people working for 30-40 years because of their ability to act. Your looks leave you after a point, you don't look the same way you did when you were in your 20s or 30s. After that you have only your ability to show.

There are millions of people in the world, I have only played a few of them.

I enjoy playing different kind of people.

In theatre there is a certain discipline that you have to follow, and you have to be experienced to be performing in front of a live audience. It is satisfying to me.

I wanted to understand the whole medium and that is when I decided to do television. Once I thought that, I was confident about making a film.

As far as I am concerned the best thing that any person can have, and which I think my son has, is commitment to work and also the attitude towards it.

Living my early years in Ludhiana, the Halwara base of the Indian Air Force was very close to our house. I would see jets cruise over my head.

Women do have better roles to play, more characters are being written. For instance, Surpriya Pathak's character in 'Ram Leela' or Neena Gupta's part in 'Badhaai Ho'.'

Different kind of cinema is being created, people are coming up with different kind of scripts, they are able to come up with scripts that work with the audiences and also scripts which will have something to say to the audience, which is a heart-warming thing.

We've not given any attention to the people in their 50s and 60s, who need attention, education and engagement, in terms of the society and in terms of their identity as human beings.

The least anyone can do is pay attention to their parents and people who are elder to them.

Creativity should be balanced with commercial interests.

When you ask me why I do one film a year, it is not my fault. I've chosen what I liked from whatever work came my way.

I have loved playing every character that I essayed.

I don't think that a film that has children in it necessarily needs to be a children's film.

I feel you need to treat children as equals instead of giving them a complex - you are young, you are small, you don't know.'

I've been saying yes to almost every interesting script that comes my way.

As long as the character is interesting and I have something to do as an actor, there is no reason to turn it down.

I don't want to do films where I'm just there with nothing much to do.

There have been actors who have been extremely successful by doing just about everything that came their way. But I do what I like doing and give it a certain time.

I am not a person of schedule when it comes to writing.

My children can do what they want to do.

I did drama school in Delhi. I am glad I studied in a school where cultural activities were significant.

Delhi is where I began practising theatre, it is always special to perform in the capital.

While pursuing engineering, my passion for theatre grew. So, I told dad I wanted to pursue acting - 'Do you really want to be an actor or are you drawn to the glamour?' he asked. I convinced him of my passion and applied to film schools.

In the 80s, parallel cinema gained momentum. So, I got back to films and won National awards for Maqbool' and other films.

It wasn't one film that changed my life, but a series of decisions that brought out the best in me.

So, 50 films, 3 National Awards, 74 plays and serials later, here I am playing Professor Das in JL50,' who understands time travel. When in reality, I'm not tech savvy at all.