What is really important to me is a sense of humour and a mischief about life. Life is just too boring otherwise.

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

It's only at this age that I can say the word 'art' without flinching.

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.'

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.

I've loved 'Vanity Fair' since I was 16 years old. You know, we're all colonial hangovers in India, steeped in English literature. It is one of these novels that I read under the covers at my convent boarding school in Simla.

I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.