To be very frank, I never got very good offers from Hindi cinema until 'Eega.' Now, I'm flooded with offers.
I am the last person who has any judgement about any kind of cinema, least of all commercial cinema because I am a product of commercial cinema.
When I get saturated by commercial films, I'll probably do another film like 'Siskiyaan.' But yes, as a viewer, I really enjoy commercial cinema; so obviously, as an actor, I would love to be a part of one.
I get many offers from Tamil films but I refuse to do them because I get offers to do item songs.
Nothing is quite honest that is not commercial, but not everything commercial is honest.
Making commercial cinema is very tough.
Indian cinema needs all ingredients like emotion, action, sentiment and humour; it's not easy. It's easy to make a Hollywood film, as it goes with a pattern. Our cinema needs a lot of commercial ingredients. That's why I don't do many films.
People know that I have a great love for cinema. Not just for commercial cinema, but for the “cinema d’auteur.” But to me, two of the great “auteurs” are actually actors and they both happen to be French. One is Alain Delon and the other is Jean-Paul Belmondo.
The Indian film industry is very, very vibrant. It is a mix like it is in Hollywood - there is a lot of highly commercial cinema.
I grew up on the commercial film format. I have grown up all my life watching films and they have all been mainstream commercial cinema.
The third line of cinema today is neither art nor commercial but categorized as good and bad cinema. I think two films - 'Main, Meri patni aur Who' and 'Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon' were the base films for this new line of cinema.
Basically, I have always wanted to have an art-house cinema. A cinema where we can show films that are not necessarily the current offerings on circuit and films that are not commercial.
To be honest, I am not really excited by most of the offers I get.
I'm a commercial director; I do some very very commercial stuff in the commercial world. My music videos are always analyzed. I need to think about what the audience is going to think.
I was a complete anomaly in this business. I didn't fit into the Hema Malini-Zeenat Aman commercial cinema mould, neither the Shabana Azmi-Smita Patil art cinema mould.
Commercial cinema is necessary to get money, but to get respect, it's necessary to keep coming up with good content and giving a chance to the talent whose craft and skill is immaculate.