I've always been proud of being a Marathi mulgi, but just because I don't keep harping about it doesn't mean I do not bother about my Marathi people.
Priyanka Chopra has produced a Marathi film. Even John Abraham announced he wants to make a Marathi film. Suddenly everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Shah Rukh, Rohit Shetty also want to do a Marathi film. There is an awareness. But I hope they don't come and spoil the market by making their kind of cinema.
Shiv Sena is interested only in Marathi votes and not the Marathi manoos.
In Marathi cinema, people have never ever run after stars, there is no star in Marathi films.
To be an actor, I had to learn Marathi. I used to always grudge why there are so many alphabets in Marathi.
I am a little disillusioned with Hindi cinema direction. I can experiment with Marathi. But Marathi doesn't give you a lot of money.
People think that I'm not interested in doing Marathi films, but that's not true. Marathi cinema is very close to my heart.
I have been doing Marathi theatre for the past 15 years. The people there are very hardworking, talented and committed. But the state of Marathi cinema is going from bad to worse.
When I got to know 'Bigg Boss' is being made in Marathi, I knew the show would require a host, who has a lot of character. At the back of my mind I knew I would be able to do it but with so many big faces already there in the Marathi industry, I did not know it could come my way.
Hindu nationalist outfits like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh perpetuate a false notion of the 'love jihad' - the false idea that young Muslim men are making Hindu girls fall in love with them to trick them into converting to Islam.
For the BJP, the conversion of Bengal's cultural Hindu into a political Hindu is a long-standing project.
I'm a nationalist. I'm a patriot. Nothing is wrong. I'm a born Hindu. Nothing is wrong. So, I'm a Hindu nationalist, so yes, you can say I'm a Hindu nationalist because I am a born Hindu, I'm patriotic, so nothing is wrong in it.
I believe that the Hindu faith has developed the spiritual in its devotees at the expense of the material, and I think that in the Western world the contrary is true. By uniting the materialism of the West with the spiritualism of the East I believe much can be accomplished. It may be that in the attempt the Hindu faith will lose much of its individuality.
I was born a Hindu, I shall die a Hindu.
'The Last Airbender' is genetically engineered for me. I love martial arts. I study it. The movie's based on a lot of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. I was raised Hindu.
I call myself a Sanatani Eternal Hindu, because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and all that goes by the name of Hindu scripture, and therefore in avataras and rebirth.