“The world is not a static place. People change, evolve.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The narratives in which you’re born have a fierce pattern of repetition.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“A true artist is one who, even after doing a lot, he reminds himself that he hasn’t done anything.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I would rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Questioning authority can hardly be called our national pastime. We even make a philosophy out of fear. Fatalism, destiny, karma… are the favourite cultural holes we hide in when authority flogs us. And what’s our tragedy.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I felt it was a privilege that I came from such a rich background. I had the best of both worlds. My mother was a Shia Muslim, while my father was a janoi-clad man. He never pretended to be secular.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“India will not function if you do not believe in unity in diversity.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I can understand the individual who is driven by biases. I can sit with him across the table and can talk to him, deal with him. But bias in the man whom we put in the seat of power and who decides to play on it… That man will destroy the very fabric of the nation.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I don’t think the choice of launching Sunny Leone as an actor in Hindi cinema was that radical a decision.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“If the story-teller is to nourish the roots of his culture, society must set him free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I feel it is the believers who are most dangerous for the secular framework of a nation.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“We as men, need to give the Indian women all the strength that she needs, rightfully asking to be able to walk with head held high.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I think one of the basest of all things is fear. Fear erodes the individual. Fear erodes the nation, the spine of the nation.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am a people’s person. I consume people.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“A long and productive career in the world of films is bound to be checkered with success and failures. You cannot have one without the other; the only way not to make a flop is not to make a film.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Life continues, irrespective of whether we are there or not.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I have no worthwhile memories of my father, therefore no idea of what a father’s role should be.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I believe that, at times, if some of us are almost too critical of our society, it’s because our sensitivity and our concern for justice makes us aware that our nation falls terribly short of its highest potential.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Citylights’ is for those people who know a lot but don’t feel at all. It’s time for them to feel, and this film will make those people, who know so much, feel because feeling is the life blood of human race, which is disappearing.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I personally feel that religion should be kept private.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I love people who have distinctive, unique personalities who are not in assembly lines and have something to offer.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“At the end of the day, human beings make mistakes.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The Congress may have made mistakes, but their ideology is not wrong.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I have great reverence for women.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I was a dreamer, and thank God for that!”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My career says that my doors will always be open for all. When an Anupam Kher walked in through my door at 28 and got ‘Saaransh,’ it launched his unimaginably productive career.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I come from a home where my mother was the only emotional umbrella under which we found all the warmth and comforts and sustenance. My father would come and go, and not as often as we’d want him to.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Making a film is very gratifying and intoxicating. It does great things to your self-esteem, but pushing people and mentoring them to their full potential is far more fulfilling.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ is a very emotional perspective on a traditional Indian woman.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“You can’t repeat the success of any movie.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I used to sleep with a little Ganesha under my pillow as a child; he was my favourite deity.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Zakhm’ has no political agenda. But, it certainly says things as they are.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Men who create power make an indispensable contribution to a nation’s greatness. But, men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I love to inspire and get inspired.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I love working with newcomers.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I don’t give a tinker’s damn for posterity.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I always wanted to make a film on Kalahandi.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Zakhm’ was my last film as a director.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Life isn’t all about entertainment.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“A franchise gives a sense of security to everyone – the director, producers, exhibitors, and even the audience feels that they are watching something close to the first part.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Blood Money’ was a stand-alone film, but we worked double for it. We realised how difficult it is to sensitise people to anything new, especially when you don’t have a star.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“We work without stars, and we proudly proclaim it. People come to Vishesh Films to work with us, and not because we can create a star.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Men like Sunil Dutt should not be mourned, only envied for their greatness.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The tragedy of India is that the Mahatma, who has numerous streets named after him and has had his statues put up everywhere, who’s there in our school books and on our currency, who is used by everyone to hardsell his political ideology, is not emulated in India.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Yes, whatever is born, dies, but I thank life for gifting us a Nelson Mandela. He will sparkle in our consciousness for times to come.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“India was going though a difficult time in 1997. We had revolving door governments.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“It’s only a big man who makes you feel big.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Without a good story, a franchise won’t work.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“A person doesn’t only give money to watch a film: he also gives his time.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Life experiences cannot be learnt on the film set or in front of the camera.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Vijay Anand’s death marks the passing away of a true, original mind. Vijay had charisma and cinematic dazzle. He was the first who gave Indian film directors the status of a star.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“There is no one idea of India, but ideas of India.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am a mere filmmaker. I am not even aligned to any political party. I vote for the Congress party, and I root for the Congress ideology, but I am not subject to the Congress party.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am an absolute atheist.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“It would be a tragedy for democracy if dissent goes away.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Cinema is not part of my entertainment.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My last film as director, the National Award winning ‘Zakhm,’ barely managed to break even. So why should I listen to so-called sensibilities of a handful of critics?”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“It’s always better to make a hero than lean on one. My goal is to emulate China in the filmmaking business, not Los Angeles.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I have only an appetite for masochistic truth, and only box-office collection figures interest me.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“When the film industry moves to the 21st century, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the money used in film-making is clean and devoid of any underworld connections.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I can be unhappy with the Congress, but I cannot give up on its ideology.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Modi talks about Congress Mukt Bharat. I feel this is a fascist ideology.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Rahul Roy is delusional. He wants ‘Aashiqui’ to end with him. When it didn’t end with me, how can it end with him?”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I was perhaps lucky to be born in a single-parent home where my mother, Shirin Mohammed Ali, was the sole figure I revered. My father’s absence in my life in my formative years exposed me to only one person, who was my source of learning the lessons of life. So to me, listening to a woman and her worldly view is almost automatic.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“While the male wants to conquer the world, the woman has a take on her immediate world that is so sparklingly refreshing that the male cannot even think of it.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Arth’ was born at a stage of my life when I had gone through an emotional wasteland.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My father did not live with us. When he came home, he never took off his shoes – he wouldn’t be staying. My father had another family: Although my father had two homes, he paid for our education and household expenses.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I was born on September, 20, 1948, to Nanabhai Bhatt, a Hindu, and Shirin Mohammed Ali, a Muslim. I was born after three daughters and followed by a daughter and son.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The real world is harsh.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am what this country dreams of achieving: a perfect example of composite India.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My mother was a Muslim and dad a Hindu. I got the best upbringing that anyone could. Never did I see any angst in my family owing to that: each practiced their own religion. My existence is the harmony that these two communities can achieve if they try.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Human beings are free to worship anyone or anything.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The film industry not only in India but also Hollywood is insular. It’s inward-looking.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“There is no denying that entertainment industries are insular, but you can’t generalise that statement and apply it to everyone.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My mother found herself in a triangular situation of my father and his legitimate wife. I experienced the emotional trauma of that triangle in my cradle.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Everyone claims to have found the ‘Holy Grail’ – the perfect formula that can guarantee a hit in Bollywood. But those who seriously believe in it are deluded.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“In a country like India, with an ever-changing demography, adaptability is the most important attribute to survive in the industry.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“The whole idea of ‘One size fits all’ is not going to work in India with a billion people.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Every five years, there is a shift in cinema space, but we are slow to catch that. Young people understand that shift.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“One needs strong performance to put across a point in theatre.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“It’s extremely important that plays reflect contemporary times and should not just be about asking for social change without having any connect with the audience.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Campaigning for Congress is an issue of conviction, and there is no element of any personal gain in it.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“It would be false if I claim that the Congress has in the past not let down its ideology, especially pertaining to Muslim community.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I have made more good films than anyone else in the country.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am in the business of entertainment.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Having buildings, growth models, having great progress, flyovers, and no human being is feeling for human being is a nightmare scenario.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I’m not a stranger to the persecution that Muslims have faced over the years.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“’Dhoka,’ I think, is not just meant for Pakistan and India but for South Asia.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“If you can’t put problems in your own backyard to rest, then how can you deal with larger issues?”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I do not want myself to be restricted to a pigeonholed kind of filmmaker.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“With larger-than-life films, you are lifted from your mundane, ordinary life because you empathise with the hero, and people see themselves in him.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“There is a child in every man, and that’s why larger-than-life stories which have a fairly tale component will work.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“People love miracles; they love stories which break through adversities.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“My life screams out and says one thing: ‘indulgence.’ I am a person who would never deny myself anything.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I am not a person who believes in austerity or denial.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Cinema now can’t be just about introspection and atma manthan; such topics won’t work.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“Films have to appeal to youngsters – it has to have tamasha, drama, and sensationalism.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I would say more power to women who scream from the rooftop about something wrong done to them, whether it is after 10 years or 20 or 50… It doesn’t make a difference.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“No power on earth can ever get me back to directing a commercial film.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
“I was never good at school, couldn’t get a job. I was a disaster when I tried to do things the way the world wanted me to.”
― Mahesh Bhatt
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