While we're working on the script, I never see any films. I make it a point because I don't want to get distracted. I don't want to be influenced, and before I know it, have somebody say, "My God, she plagiarized that line."

It was difficult in India to find an eight year old who could play a widow. The reason for that is that most of the children in India are really exposed to Bollywood. It's commercial Indian cinema which is really over the top. To find an actor, or even a non-actor, who felt natural was difficult.

I simply can't understand the stereotyping women as film makers who make soppy family dramas. Look at Katherine Bigelow: she has directed Point Break and Strange Days. I hate labels of any kind. Just because you are a woman you can't do this or that? Twenty years ago women entering the work force was enough of a shock. People just like the predictable; they feel safe with it. You know, it's such a bore

When I was exposed to the history and the cultural background of why women whose husbands die, why they have to become ascetic or live a life that is completely deprived of emotional or social or cultural sustenance, I was really shocked.

My screenplays are very detailed. The reason they're detailed... you have to think on your feet. You have to be ready to change because there are no such things as ideal conditions.

While we're working on the script, I never see any films. I make it a point because I don't want to get distracted. I don't want to be influenced, and before I know it, have somebody say, "My God, she plagiarized that line."

Oh my God! Why did I leave India? I fell in love with a white man. That's what it was. It was the most boring, predictable reason in the world. I met him in India, we fell in love, and we got married. And then, we got divorced. Sorry about that.