 Indian cinema is our culture. Feel good, glamour, aesthetic, emotion, romance. The colours, the warmth, the songs, the dances, the kish. Everything is our culture. That is what India is. Colour, larger than life. A lot of music. And nothing is ever subtle. Like a, like a, you know, full course meal, you know. It's like that. So it has to have everything. Which I think if you live in India, you understand why. Indian cinema has always been very unique. It's always full of drama and emotions and music and everything. Because that's what Indian society is all about. And why is Indian society like that? Because from a very young age, we are taught the scriptures. And there's a lot of drama there. The stories there are very real. And that's how Indian cinema manifested itself. This is purely my own personal connection. I think India is such a large population with a variety of people. And I think they basically want a fantasy. After a hard day's work of breaking their backs, I think they just want to go and watch something where they feel, wow, you know. I wish we could be a part of that. We don't make once-track films in our films. Emotions, drama, romance, comedy, music, everything has to be there. And of its own, we sell emotions like no one else does. We sell feeling like no one else does. One thing is everybody needs a hero. That's universal. Everybody needs a hero. Everybody needs entertainment. And in India, there are not very many avenues for getting entertained. And as much as you may deny it or as much as you may not accept it, the only format of entertainment in India is films. It's a strategic environment designed to make you sit deep in your chair and look up at an angle at a screen. It's tough. It's a hard life. You come into the cinema hall, sit under a fan, and come give us three hours of your time and we'll change your mind for three hours and just let you escape into maybe sometimes a surrealistic world which you won't have to think about how to feed your family or how hot it is outside. I am very proud of the songs. I am very proud of colour. I am very proud of the fact that we are over the top. And I am proud mainly because I know I entertain the largest number of people in the world even if I am sitting here and making a Hindi film which is 100 the budget of Titanic. I still know that more people watch me and I'm not saying it out of again being pompous more people watch me or as many people watch me as they watch Arnold Schwarzenegger or as much as Sylvester Stallone or as much as Brad Pitt and more people feel at home in London, in Birmingham when they see me do a dance and feel very warm and cry remembering the homeland and I'm very proud of that. You can't ignore the Indian film industry we are the largest film industry in the world we out-produce I think any other film industry almost by 50% and that's an outstanding number. The fact that Indian cinema is being now more or less accepted in a much larger way than before goes largely initially to the non-resident Indian or the Asian that has settled abroad who is craving to be close to his roots and once they leave Indian shores the craving increases no matter where you may be you always want to know more about India to listen to its music to eat its food to dress like the way India dresses it's very difficult to tear yourself away from that and for some odd reason Indian cinema has become representative of almost a parallel culture Link between us and otherwise the rules are there there is a huge amount of identification amongst the Indian settled abroad with Indian cinema parents want to teach their child their second generation or third generation kid Hindi or the national language watch a Hindi movie you want to see or see how a particular festival or a custom is celebrated or how Diwali is celebrated or how Holy is celebrated watch the movie and they try to emulate it it's great news for Indian cinema Bollywood has its commercial potential I feel and also a lot of foreign filmmakers are embracing the style like Maulan Rosh it embraces that style of filmmaking and maybe making it a little it's making it like a Hindi film with an accent you know what I mean and something like that you know Mula Rosh is a very good example like an English Bollywood film for its uniqueness of melody combined with the raw Indian beats that has become internationally appealing ladies and gentlemen we have such a large audience of our own that filmmakers in India have never ever thought of addressing a world audience they've been content addressing their own audience they've never attempted to address a world audience and today I think the world is getting smaller and I think it is time that perhaps talent from India should consider making films for a world audience also they certainly shouldn't stop making films for their own audience but they should look at every now and then making a film which is meant to entertain a world audience and I think there is a huge amount of talent in India which would be very successful at giving world audiences a rocking time a market of an audience of a billion people and just by the volume of numbers it's a huge chunk of the market and plus there are so many Indians all over the world and the best part is that it's not only Indians abroad but now even non-Indians local people of the local countries or wherever who have an interest in Indian films because it's just another perspective you know it's a lot more colourful it's a lot more grand with music and dancing and whatever you know when you make movies you want more and more people to see them and when the film crosses over and it goes beyond your nation and goes to countries where they are not supposed to know of your culture they don't even have an idea where you are placed on the map when it reaches them I think it's a great feeling I think this is possibly the most exciting period of Indian cinema since its inception now the time has come where we have directors and actors who are willing to try new things make films which might not be within the confines of what we call commercial cinema and try and do something different and you know just try your luck and so far I think most of them have paid off I think the Indian film industry is growing in a lot of ways and there are a lot of fresh and young talent coming in with their own sensibility the world is gradually getting smaller so the sensibility of people is getting more global and as a result the new filmmakers coming in somebody like Farhan Akhtar or Ashutosh Gowarekar directors with a sensibility which is appreciated and understood all across the globe there's a whole new wave of directors there's a whole new wave of new actors and newer technicians so I think it's a whole new younger lot you come in with newer sensibilities you come in with newer takes on the same thing it's one of the first films that is kind of youth orientated you're telling a story we're just modern day storytellers that's all there are going to be crossover films there are going to be films which have universal sensibility there are going to be films which people understand all over the world because I think cinema has its own language it's a film written with a camera then it actually sums it up actually in a strange way because you might since you're a visual person you would like to actually tell a story visually I was fascinated with dealing with Ashoka also in a very Bollywood way with integrating songs and everything so that at the end of it you have a film about a war we had a golden period of cinema in the 50s Guru Dutt we made great films great films super films and I think today after 2001 I can safely say that we're heading towards that zone because for the first time in about 30 years we gave the average Indian cinegoa a buffet of entertainment it's a story about the triumph of the human spirit it's a story which is the underdog achieving the impossibility which is a very attractive concept Lagan was made primarily for an Indian audience and it is only when we started getting a lot of interest from people outside of India that we realised that it is actually a film which is a film which is a film which is a film where people outside of India that we realised that it is actually appealing to audiences from different parts of the world and we were of course thrilled and happy about that and probably I think because the theme is very universal and it's made with an international sensibility one man almost put everything together acted in it marketed it when personally caught hold of people on the streets see my film nominated to the Oscar for best foreign language film we have Amelie France Elling Norway Lagan India it was one of a hell of a experience actually because you know all these years I've been watching the academy awards on television and this is the first time that I was actually sitting right there not as a guest of someone but representing the film it's a proud moment for any country see it feels so good when you get to see you know an Indian film being nominated or up in the nominations for for an Oscar whether you win or not is not the point yes you're happy about the fact that they have recognised that here is an industry which can make note worthy films India has made a lot of great films over the last 50 years which a lot of people in different parts of the world have not seen simply because they didn't know about it you know a film like Mother India, a film like Mughal-e-Azam, Pyaasa we've had such great filmmakers over the years whose work probably has not been exploited to the extent it could have been Indian cinema is on its way to go completely universal and there is already an appreciation and there is going to be much and everything and I say this with a lot of sincerity I don't think there is any difference at all in the talent that is present in India as compared to that in the West I think we are equally talented if not more we make great films so watch them for what they are yes of course we have beautiful women and they wear beautiful clothes but beneath that entire upper crust we have great cinema it's very exciting because I think in the next 10 years Indian cinema is really going to blast on to the world stage and everybody will have to stand up and listen and say hey guys these guys they are good after all