National Film Award Winners

"My parents struggled to get to a point where I could enjoy their privilege. I do recognize that. If tomorrow I don’t do well and I stop getting films, I’ll still always acknowledge the fact that I got such great opportunities, so I can never really complain."

"I was at my house having a perfectly normal afternoon sitting in my living room when I felt something watching me. I looked up and saw two men on the terrace of my neighbouring building with a camera right at me! In what world is this ok and allowed? This is a gross invasion of someone's privacy. There's a line you just cannot cross and it's safe to say all lines were crossed today."

"The feeling that I won't be able to do it is always a good feeling. It puts me in an uncomfortable space. And lots of interesting things can be explored and discovered when you are out of your comfort zone, and when you are terrified."

"I don't think I am the same person. Life has so much more meaning and I think actors can get really self-obsessed if they are constantly thinking about themselves. Now when there is another being in your life suddenly it is like Alia who? It is Raha, Raha, Raha! The focus is on her."

"If someone who matters to you takes you down, it can break you. That someone whose approval mattered to me started to constantly find faults with me. At that point of time, it was important to walk away from that relationship."

"I choose films the same way I've been doing it for years. I just keep it flavorful. I want the flavors to be different from each other. It's to satisfy my extremely impatient, monotony-abhorring kind of brain. It's not at all calculated."

"I don’t like to sort of break down process or talk about process because I feel like art is not like science. It doesn’t have a method to it, you can have a method to your discipline and to the way you approach your work, but at the end of the day imbibing a personality or behaving or talking or feeling doesn’t have a process."

"You feel grateful for failure at times because that's what gives you a certain vigour. You feel grateful for a heartbreak or disappointment because that's what makes you value the opposite."

"There was a complete lack of conviction on my part. Just playing myself doesn't excite me, which is why I thought I could sleepwalk through it. I couldn't sleep or walk after that."

"When I see her work, when I see her act, even in life, what she gives is something that I'm aspiring to for myself."

"Working in Hollywood on an English language movie for me sort of means starting from scratch, reaching out to an audience that is perhaps not familiar with my work, having worked ten years in the Indian film industry. You can get very comfortable where you are. I'm naturally more drawn towards whatever makes me uncomfortable. It's a way for me to compete with myself."

"She's the first person I felt parental about. She's the first person I felt like I had a parental instinct for. I love her and the country knows she's one of our finest actors. I have a tremendous amount of love, respect and admiration and I'm allowed to say what I want about her."

"I did not set out to break stereotypes."

"I choose characters for the irresistible power they exude."

"I want to be a diva and I want to be glamorous and at the top of all fashion portals. But at the same time I also want to be at the top of all film awards. I want to have the balance of both worlds."

"Cherophobia is the fear of being too happy and thinking that you'll lose it all. I have cherophobia in both my personal and professional life. I try to not be aware of this fame because I fear I will lose it. I don't live in the moment because I am constantly thinking about what if it all goes away."

"Doubt is the key to knowledge. Doubt makes you push, doubt makes you work hard, doubt makes you not take the opportunity for granted."

"If everybody likes you it means that you are super boring. There has to be somebody who does not like you. I am very happy that there are people who don't like me. I am even happier when I convert the dislikes to likes."

"I follow my instincts. Sometimes it works commercially and sometimes it doesn’t, but I don’t regret a single film."

"My work is an extension of the person I am and of my beliefs."

"I am a person with a lot of faith and I have conversations [with God] all the time but I am not so religious in the conventional, organised sense."

"We have a certain societal norm in which we have to be put together, we have to be right, we have to be quiet, we have to be simple, we have to be soft-spoken, we have to be well-dressed. We have to be so many things. Just bringing everything: the vulnerability, the jealousy, the lows, the highs, the real things that we are afraid of even thinking. If you bring that to the forefront on the big screen, then the person watching you from the audience will feel like, 'OK, I'm not the only one.'."

"The only thing I can do is build a body of work which hopefully proves I belong in this industry. I always make it a point to acknowledge the easy start I got at the beginning of my career. And sure, it will get you in the room, but then it's up to you to work that room. The audience is actually the best judge of talent. You could come from a background that props you up but the audience will ultimately decide whether or not you belong there."

"As an artist, I'm a constant learner of the craft of acting. I'm always looking out for films that make me better, that challenge my thinking, my beliefs and opens me up to absorb new things. Andhadhun has truly been one such film that has shaped me as an actor today. It taught me to challenge my inhibitions and showcase a completely different side to my craft that surprised me and also pleasantly surprised the audiences. I'm thankful to my director Sriram Raghavan for trusting me with his vision and thankful to the universe for giving me projects like this which I can be so proud of."

"When I was doing theatre in Chandigarh, I always played negative and aggressive characters, something that nobody could imagine me in. I did imagine myself to play a cop but maybe people did not. Anubhav Sinha sir also never expected me in the role of a tough cop. And that was the challenge. More than the character, it was the subject that intrigued me."

"Last two years were very fortunate for me as my films clocked great numbers at the box office and it only gave courage to me to do a film like Article 15. It was a part of my bucket list to do a film like this because I always wanted to do something on a social issue."

"In this society, chauvinism is mistaken for chivalry. It's tough to change that. This film will trigger change in the right direction."

"My acting career has been quite a ride. After Vicky Donor, I gave two-three unsuccessful films and that was a great learning curve. But Dum Laga Ke Haisha onwards it was cool. I learnt so much from all my films, successful or unsuccessful. You start believing in your intuition, your gut feeling. It ultimately depends on the choices you're taking. Everyone is talented today. Your career graph depends on the choice of scripts, nothing else."

"We have made street plays on social issues and caste discrimination was one of them. Apart from that, I have been supporting an NGO in Delhi. I did all this before ‘Article 15’ came into the picture."

"That's exactly the reaction we wanted. This is good trolling. In a country where erectile dysfunction is a taboo subject, I am glad that we are putting it out there for the public to discuss it."

"Karan gave me the landline number to his office when I met him. I should have taken a hint there and then. But I was so excited! I even planned exactly when I would make the call: sometime around 11:30am, so he’d be done with breakfast and available to talk."

"After Vicky Donor, life is coming a full circle for me with this film. We are part of a progressive changing society. As young actors, the onus lies on us to choose subjects which must be talking points. Is our work of any value if we don't have an opinion on things?"

"I was lucky to have him as my co-star. Just like Annu Kapoor, who was such a help in Vicky Donor, Kunal gave my character perspective and provided concentrated energy. Beyond that, I never have any expectations from life."

"Some people presumed I was just being myself in Vicky Donor, a Punjabi boy trying to find my bearings in life. I had to work much harder on this character in Nautanki Saala. I had to get into a different skin. And the bromance between me and Kunal Roy Kapoor is immensely liked as well."

"In Darr, SRK says that his height is 5’9" or 5’10", so I wanted to be 5’9", at least. I used to pray to God every day, ki bhagwan meri height 5’9" kar do. My father is 5’5" and my mother is about the same. So my hopes were really meagre. And then, I grew to five-nine-and-a-half! I was over the moon. I always knew that I had the talent, but height was a bit of a gamble."

"When I auditioned for TV, they used to tell me all sorts of things. Some said my eyebrows were too thick. Others said my accent was too Punjabi. But I also knew that, being an outsider, merely auditioning for film roles wouldn’t have got me a film. You have to prove your mettle as an actor on TV or in some other medium. Be it me, Sushant Singh Rajput or even SRK and Vidya Balan – everyone has proven their worth on television [before entering Bollywood.]"

"I’ve realised something: Either you have to be a superstar, or your script has to be one. So till the time I’m not a superstar, my scripts should do that job."

"Experimentation is the most important thing today. Most young actors will not want to talk about the movies that have made money; they talk about the movies that have given them credibility."

"During my growing-up years in Chandigarh, or even in Mumbai, I’ve never come across nasty people. I’ve only heard of it but never seen the bad side of the film industry. Of course I was rejected many times in auditions. But I wouldn’t call that rude."

"I approach all my films as my first. If you carry that innocence, it reflects in the camera. I know I have become a star but I don't want to believe it. I want to be that simple, no fuss guy who approaches a film as if it is my first movie."

"If you have a mainstream actor attached to a subject like this, it reaches out to a wider audience. We want to reach out to people who believe in caste discrimination and if we are able to change the mindset of one person that will be the true victory for us."

"As a person, I was always intrigued by the caste divide in the country. We have separate utensils for our domestic help, we do not share a meal with them or any of our staff. It is all deep rooted. It will take time to get rid of all this. We need to look within and then the conversation will be started. In rural areas the caste divide is very rampant, there are honour killings because of inter-caste alliances. We have depicted the situation as real as it could be in our film."

"I am an actor. Give me any part…Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for an Oscar for Tropic Thunder. He played an African-American. Acting has no limits."

"I didn’t use Fair and Lovely. I was very proud of my skin colour. How does it matter? I am an actor, I am not here to sell my fairness. I used to laugh, actually. I found those people so ignorant. So regressive. They are still stuck in that era - hero matlab gora chitta, 6 foot."

"I think I’ve evolved as an actor. My performance was appreciated. People are saying I am not a one-film wonder. That’s the best part of being in this film."

"Most contestants had moved base to Mumbai to cash in on the Roadies fame. My dad told me that I wasn’t prepared. There was no dearth of talent in Mumbai, but there was a dearth of intelligent talent. He asked me not to skip my education."

"The male ego is so unnecessarily important in patriarchal societies. When a woman cannot conceive, everyone has something to tell her. When a guy can't get it up, it's shoved under the carpet. Sexual health is important to a relationship. In this film, the girl is in love with the guy and we establish the fact that their relationship goes beyond the sexual act. But the girl is emphatic that she wants to have sex."

"Reading the newspaper or watching the news in the morning. I don’t like starting my day on a bad note."

"I do not like sweets. But if I have to choose one, it has to be rasmalai."

"When people address me as Shreyaji, I tell them, ek G Ghoshal ka to banta hai, lekin (G for Ghoshal is alright, but) please don’t call me Shreyaji!."