Bollywood actors are so set in what they want, and the way they want it. And why shouldn't they be? But it is not the same in Hollywood, because the love of the audience is not the same.

We all know the power of film; we all know there's almost nothing more powerful than to see people on film that look and talk like you, like we do.

I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world.

My family is almost exactly like the one in 'Monsoon Wedding'. We are very open, fairly liberal, loud people.

You know, the sad thing of post-9/11, which was of course horrific, was that the city in which I felt completely at home for two decades, suddenly people like us - brown people - were looked at as the 'Others.'

Creative freedom is an imperative for me, but it doesn't really exist in a Hollywood game.

I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics or oppressive the situation may be, whether it's subsumed within a human being or between two human beings. I want to help us hold a mirror to ourselves.