Actors From India

"Nature is one. There is only one truth in life. We have a single universe, which has a sole creator."

"I believe that cinema picks up ideas from society and not the other way round."

"A seed is small in size. But it carries in its womb leaves, flowers, fruits, nay even the whole tree. The human brain is very much like a seed. It may not have a great shape and size. But it traps within itself endless possibilities. It is a fountainhead of thoughts and promises that can be fulfilled."

"What kind of journalism do the self-appointed defenders of minority rights want to promote in India that does not give a journalist the right to interview a thrice-elected chief minister simply because the Congress and the Left parties feel threatened by him [Narendra Modi]? Likewise, Amitabh Bachchan was attacked viciously for merely doing an ad campaign for Gujarat’s tourism department."

"It is good to praise others but it important to look for faults within oneself. It is nice to be concerned about people but to be introspective is even nicer."

"When they were growing up, I was working from morning to night. When I left, they were asleep, when I came back, they were asleep," once he told a magazine. Even when they were young, he couldn't visit their school as Shweta and Abhishek asked him not to visit them to avoid too much commotion"

"If Slumdog Millionaire projects India as a Third World, dirty-underbelly, developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. It's just that the Slumdog Millionaire idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Golden Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not."

"We had forgotten the art of using silence to convey emotions in our films and that's what you seem to have mastered. You've used silence to great advantage in the film. It's brilliant."

"One does not leave gold untouched, when one discovers the yellow metal in filth. One is very ready to pick it up. What is intrinsically good will never change no matter where it is found. A diamond is often spotted amidst black blocks of coal. Lotus blossoms in a swamp and the beautiful rose blooms among thorns. In fact the presence of such invaluable wonders enhances the importance of a place no matter how sullied it is!"

"He never gave us a script and we never asked - we were safe in his hands."

"When your back is against the wall, there's only one way to go and that's forward."

"After extended-and successful-battles against w:cancer:cancer, drugs and anti-terrorism laws, all of which touched his family, Sunil Dutt has opened on another front. This time the fight is also personal. The National Census for 2001 ignores the disabled on grounds that such a surveyis beyond the scope and capacity of its operations. But this man in a wheel-chair, refuses to let the matter lie. Sunil Dutt, MP, Mumbai northwest, partially paralyzed by a spinal disorder, is spearheading the movement against the ongoing census.In a letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Dutt has demanded that the census should also take into account the disabled of the country. “Are they not people?”, he asks as he tries to rise to his feet."

"A very special human being...He had friends and admirers not just in India but also across the world who will now miss him."

"His passing away is not only a great loss to the sports fraternity but that to the nation as avery popular man of art and culture and a great national political leader."

"Every shooter winning a medal at the CommonWealth event received a personal fax from Mr. Sunil Dutt, Iy made us feel special."

"It was his support and encouragement that had helped me to go abroad for training. He was great supporter of sports in general and his passing away is a big loss."

"He was a man who was prepared to discuss topics for the improvement of sports in the country."

"From impoverished Partition refugee to popular film star to Member of Parliament to a Minister in the Union Cabinet — the story of Sunil Dutt's life reads like a film script."

"I have heard about Christ, but I am very happy that I am walking with Christ [Sunil Dutt]."

"Mr Dutt was a man who worked for world peace."

"In my career I met so many movie stars, but starting a life together and building a home goes beyond all other relationships," he explains. "I found in her a human being and a woman who would take care of my family. I found in my wife both compassion and understanding."

"His life reads like a film script; his commitment to social issues superseded his loyalty to the Congress"

"My concept of secularism is to be a good human being who respects all religions."

"I never knew there was a romance. The only thing I knew was that she came into my life. I was not concerned about her past. I know these questions arise. But I am concerned about the person who comes in my life; what matters from that day on is how true the person is to me. The past is nothing to me."

"One of my first tasks is to instill discipline into the organisation. We do not need slogan shouting. Too many 'leaders' do nothing but sit on podiums or get themselves photographed with other leaders. This must stop. The Youth Congress leaders must go back to the roots and serve the people. I want to bring back value-based politics to the youth wing."

"He was true soldier without a gun. Although life had played many tricks with him, he always overcame them."

"If there is no friendship with one's neighbours, no one can progress. Look at Canada and the USA -- both countries help each other."

"It dates back to a day in 1987 when Punjab was burning. I read about a spastic girl and her parents being killed in Amritsar. It disturbed me and I decided to march to Amritsar from Mumbai on foot. It was part of Gandhian philosophy that if your people are doing wrong you punish yourself. Gandhiji would fast; likewise, I decided to walk and inflict some pain on myself. It was a way of sharing the pain."

"I wish it culminates in something positive and we can both grow economically. The money we spend on weapons can be used to give water to the people, to educate everybody, to give them medical aid and to give employment to the youth of the country."

"During Partition, my entire family was saved by a Muslim. His name was Yakub -- a friend of my father's who lived a mile-and-a-half away from our village."

"Somehow, this hatred should come to an end. I am a believer of nonviolence. I believe we all are one, whichever religion we belong to."

"There should be no statues or a street named after me, no postal stamp with my face or any a organization after me. I like people to remember me by following my work"

"I have been a lifelong Congressman because I believe in the party's philosophy."

"Rejuvenate the Youth Congress. Make it more effective. People-oriented. I will supervise how the Youth Congress is performing and suggest ways and means to improve the way it works. It has to have a positive, dynamic image."

"He is making money but I am earning love. His money will get spent, but the respect and love that I get will remain for him when I leave. I only hope he keeps it up.Somewhere he will take care of my respect and love."

"Karnad is regarded as one of the three great writers of the Contemporary Indian Drama, the other two being Vijay Tendulkar and Badal Sircar. His significant plays include Yayati, Tughlaq, Naga-Mandala, Tale-Danda and Hayavadana."

"If calling Tagore a third rate playwright constitutes freedom of expression, then calling Karnad’s plays as bullshit is also freedom of expression."

"Girish Karnad is the foremost playwright of the contemporary Indian stage. He has given the Indian theatre a richness that could probably be equated only with his talents as an actor-director. His contribution goes beyond theater. He had directed feature films, documentaries and television serials in Kannada, Hindi and English and has played leading roles as an actor in Hindi and Kannada art films, commercial movies and television serials. H has represented India in foreign lands as an emissary of art and culture."

"The subject that interests most writers is, of course, themselves and it is easy subject to talk about. But you know it is always easier if you are a poet or a novelist because you are used to talking in your voice. You suspend your whole life talking as writer directly to the audience. The problem is being playwright is that everything that you write is for someone else to say."

"When people all around us are slaughtered in the name of a temple (and masjid) I hear echoes from those times long past."

"I was excited by the story of Yayati. This exchange of ages between the father and the son, which seemed to be terribly powerful and terribly modern. At the same time I was reading a lot of Sartre and the Existentialist. This consistent harping on responsibility which the Existentialist indulge in suddenly seemed to link up with the story of Yayati."

"The next prime minister (Narendra Modi) may be a man who organised the slaughter of more than 3000 Muslims in Gujarat. He is a candidate; he is being touted as the next prime minister."

"I see a legacy of my generation... I am happy to belong to a generation that had a Dharmaveer Bharti, a Mohan Rakesh, a Vijay Tendulkar and I. Together we can claim that we did create a national theatre for modern India."

"Everybody must definitely nod their head in appreciation at the list of books Dr. Bhyrappa has read in order to write not just about Tipu Sultan, but Muhammad Tughlaq, too. He has really worked hard. However, instead of going to such pains, he should have asked me directly, I would have told him: I don’t have an iota of interest in the historical Muhammad Tughlaq. I have no interest as to whether he was good or evil, whether he was pro or anti-Hindu. I wished to write an entertaining play, and in the endeavor, wanted to choose a fairly complex character. Tughlaq’s life provided me that material. I took as much I wanted and used it in the manner I wanted to use. My Tughlaq is not the historical Tughlaq. It is an imaginary character. If I wanted to write history, I would’ve written history instead, and not a play."

"I've had a good life....I have managed to do all I could wish for --even be a government servant. Now I feel whatever time I have left should be spent doing what I like best -- writing plays."

"What a person understands as his or her Purusharthas could very according to his or her background stageand station in life, sex, etc., as well as the nature of the crisis he or she is facing"

"I have been lucky in having multipronged career. You know how I have been an actor, a publisher, a film maker. But in none of these fields have I felt quite as much at home as play writing."

"Aamir Khan is an intelligent actor with an eye for detail. He places the film above every individual or ego."

"He was my hero in Ghulam. After that there was a long gap until Mangal Pandey. In between he did want me for Lagaan. Today, we're very close friends. The equation is different. I remembered how he used to show me to do scenes. He still tells me how to do my scenes."

"In the last two years there was a brief period that he decided to quit the films as it is affecting his personal life in many ways."