I love Punjabis. My best friends are Punjabis. They are such big-hearted people, such happy-go-lucky people that work doesn't feel like work with them.
I always believe that if we Hindus are like milk, Punjabis, Sikhs are the butter, the best part of that milk. Brought up with that kind of respect for Punjabis, I always desired to play a true Sikh character on screen someday.
Difference between Partition experience of Punjabis and Sindhis is that Punjabis found their state in India while Sindhis lost theirs.
For Punjabis like me, we have to work a little harder on our body.
Punjabis are the only people keeping non-film music alive in a big way.
When Punjabis all over the world admired my work, there was buzz in Bollywood as well.
I love when you get to work with people who care about the project as much as you do because then, you're altogether in. I feel like I've been lucky so far to have the chance to work with people who work that way.
Since childhood, most of my friends have been Punjabis and I have lived in that environment for a long time.
Many of the crew members I work with and continue to work with were friends or have become close friends, and so we keep working together. And I like casting friends of mine or people I know in parts I know would be perfect for them. I like to bring things and people that mean something to me in to my work.
Hard work. Well, that=s all right for people who don=t know how to do anything else. It=s all right for people who aren=t lucky. But once you==re lucky, you don=t have to work for other people. You make them work for you.
I felt really lucky in that I've gotten to know some of my favorite artists; I get to tell them how important they are to me. But that doesn't always make me want to work with people. I feel like if I'm going to work with somebody, it's because I feel like I actually have something to add to them.
I think Punjabis have an inherent quality - of being gregarious and happy - and that makes for very good characters, and that's the reason why every actor wants to play a Sardar.
I like happy sets. Happy sets are good, and I think people feel comfortable on them. When fear arrives in any context it's just boring and it closes people down. If people feel inadequate or if they feel bullied... It might work for some people but I think, as a rule, it just takes any joy out of the creative process.
I chose the actors that I was in love with. I cannot work with people that I don't personally like a lot. They can be the best actor in the world, but if the first contact is not good, if I don't fall in love with them, then I don't want to work with them. It's impossible.
I'm very conscious that I'm in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it - how incredibly lucky.
I would just like to say this about all the married people working together on the set: it was just a joy. That is the great joy to go to work with people that you love, whether they be people that you are in love with or people that you just love and be creative and artistic and make things that you want to send out into the world and make people feel good. It was a great environment to work in for me.
I'm quite good friends with the putative director, Vincenzo Natali, and I'm a big fan of his work, but beyond that, I don't like to talk about other people's work work-in-progress.