“The only time you do not get nervous is when you are making your first film. At that time, just the joy of making a movie is so high that you do not care; you are happy to have finally made it. It is only later that you want your film to be seen and appreciated by people.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“As writers, we are sketching people all the time when we write fiction.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“With fiction, you can do whatever you want to, but if you are making a film on someone, you have to stick to the truth. You cannot just say that I will change the climax because I do not like it.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“After I finish any film, I move to the next one. It takes about a year to write and another six months are for pre-production and other things. You need a minimum of two-and-a-half months for the shooting of a new film. Then, I also edit my own film.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Film-makers are greedy people – we want good stories and good subjects.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Films have to find a way to compress many anecdotes into one, or many events into one. Otherwise there is no way to tell it in two and a half hours.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“But I don’t think as film-makers it is our responsibility that every time we make a film we should be saying something. If you are entertaining people, that’s more than enough.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“See, most films are about achievers. You see a film like ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ or ‘Dhoni.’ Even ‘Gandhi,’ or the biopic on Lincoln. They end in triumph, on a high.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I grew up in Nagpur, and I first started enjoying the author Harishankar Parsai. He wrote mostly satire, essays on the current situation and social issues. He wrote many books and I think he was my first influence.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“In non-fiction, I like Wayne Dyer. I have a compilation of his best quotes near my bed! To me he’s one of the finest authors.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I read till I fall asleep. Daytime actually I feel guilty reading – I always feel I should be doing something else!”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I lived in Bandra East, on the 12th floor. There was a small earthquake; I could feel the building shaking. I was halfway down the stairs when I realised I’d forgotten my laptop, and all my scripts were on it. If I lost the laptop, I’d lose all my work. I ran back up to get it!”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“It takes time to write a script and properly make the film and edit it.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I would love to make more films.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Writing is a lonely process.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Any holiday seems like a guilt trip.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Like every father who wants his son to be either an engineer or a doctor, my father wanted me to become a doctor. I never did.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“When you focus on your own work, it all falls in place. People respect you.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Every actor is great in his own right but certain actors suit certain roles.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“A lot of medical problems are solved if doctors are nice to patients. If you can make them think positive, you may not need medication.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“When your first movie releases, in my case it was ‘Munnabhai MBBS,’ I was just relieved that it was out there. Just that sheer thought makes you happy.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I’m a filmmaker first, nothing else matters.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I have a terrible reputation for being nervous.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I can make any film I want to make.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I take time to write my script, if I have more scripts, I will make more movies.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“When you make a film you make a film. You don’t think about how it will be marketed.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I spent five years after ‘3 Idiots’ making my next film. I didn’t see a single penny in those five years.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“That’s a battle we are always fighting whenever we cut trailers or promos for films. We always wonder how much to say, and every filmmaker wants to say the minimum. You don’t want to reveal your film and ruin the viewing experience.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Writers should be respected.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“If you make something from your heart, of course you want it to connect with the people.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I am trying to make the kind of film that I would be happy to see.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“To preach is very boring, and nobody wants free advice. But if it’s entertainment, then this changes. If you explain something to a kid through an interesting story, he’ll be hooked.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“In terms of films, I don’t like to show pain. I’d like to show hope.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“While we were filming ‘Munna Bhai MBBS,’ we didn’t think we were doing some kind of mainstream cinema. I only knew that I was doing a different kind of cinema.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“The more you succeed, the more you want people to love your efforts.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who has produced my earlier films, is still a part of ‘PK’ and is presenting it. He is not a hands-on producer – he used to put a certain amount in the bank and give me the cheque book.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“At the end of the day, you don’t remember ‘Mother India’ or ‘Pyaasa’ for the business it did, you remember them because they had a good story to tell.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“PK’ is a very unique story. There are no benchmarks in Hindi cinema to give you an idea about ‘PK.’”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“There is no good or bad cinema, there are films that connect either less or more with audience.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“The pressure is always there to make good films, but that is more from your mindset, either you have it or you don’t have it.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“One must always attempt to make good films, even if you fail it is ok. It is a journey, you have both good and bad days.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“A director should be in a position where he is only directing. On the sets, he is only looking at the performances, thinking ‘How I am going to shoot this?’”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I think in any work of art, there always will be randomness about what is good, what is bad.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“You need to have a liberal point of view for a society to grow.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I would say films inspire me more than the makers.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ shook me as a filmmaker.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Dad had a huge influence on me. I really look up to him for his brave acts. He was an outspoken man. For him, if it was the right thing, he would stand up for the smallest guy around him.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“In ‘Sanju,’ there are too many colours. Some other filmmaker could have taken a dark side to that story.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“My natural bend is to get attracted towards things that have been an influence in my life.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I think I have taken more holidays with Boman than I have with my wife.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I’m a film maker, not a crusader. I know a film will not change the world. If it can make a difference to a few that’s good enough.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I feel the primary job of cinema is to entertain.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I’m absolutely open to scripts written by someone else.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I love ‘Rang De Basanti.’”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Every film is a journey.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I completely work on the basis of my intuition. I don’t think I premeditate a success formula. There is no formula to make a successful film.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Assuming audiences to be dumb, that’s a big fallacy.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Filmmaking is a very collaborative art. Unlike a painting that an artist paints sitting by himself, as a director, you have to work with a team.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I like playing with languages and dialects as we have so many in India. Adding a dialect just makes the dialogues more colorful.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Very honestly, I don’t feel ‘Munnabhai’ is a comedy film. I seriously feel it is a very emotional film.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I don’t think anything comes naturally; you just have to work very hard.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“There’s a big time influence Hrishikesh Mukherjee has always had on my work. I can watch ‘Anand,’ ‘Golmaal’ or ‘Chupke Chupke’ as many times as possible. I just really admire his kind of cinema.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Vidhu Vinod Chopra is the only man I see around who makes films because he thinks ‘this is a story that needs to be told, so let’s tell it.’”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Making a film confusing does not make it intelligent.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“An editor does not just join shots. He creates emotions out of the shots.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Religion is man-made. Every religion says my ‘God is the best.’”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I try and get what I want using the strengths that the actors have.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“You never know the depth of an actor.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I have the highest respect for the concept of ‘Advait’ – the oneness of all humans – that is central to Indian culture, thought, and religion.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“100 years of Indian cinema has happened. Anything you do, feels like it has already been done. The struggle is to find a new and unique idea.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“A lot of my writing and my detailing of scenes are based on my observations of life in Nagpur.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I’ve often been asked why my shot-taking is not stylish, why I don’t think about visual statements. The truth is, style is irrelevant. I never think of the shot as much as I think of the characters and what they are saying and doing.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I have been in advertising and I know my craft well, but ultimately in cinema every scene has to matter, and that has to do with the writing.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Taking nuances from real life will help you make scenes that have never been done before. It keeps the story interesting.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“It is impossible to know what people will like. No market research, formulas will help, it’s best to stop guessing.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Bad choices make good stories.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I feel some people are cynical by nature. You show them anything, they only see the problems and negatives.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don’t fake it.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“In Hollywood, the system is so streamlined, the administration is in place. That’s why every six months Spielberg is able to make a film.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Most biopics are stories of people who achieve something. It’s an easier graph, a rags-to-riches story, or wanting something and reaching that. Sanju’s life is not actually a case like that.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Scale is very easy actually. Put a camera on a jib or a drone and get bloody big shots on big sets, it’s very easy. But then you’re distracted. If you’re looking at the shot, you aren’t following the story any more.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I like Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Hrithik Roshan. I would love to work with them all.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I prefer to be a director and a narrator rather than a writer.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“The longest break I have taken in my life was 14 days. On the 15th day, I started getting impatient to start work again.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I edit as I write and shoot. Any extra line, any pause that I know will get chopped on the editing table is done away with then and there.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I can lock myself for months in the editing suite with no noise or distractions. It’s fascinating to see the film taking shape.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I like human-interest movies that are light-hearted.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Editing is a meditative process. I enjoy it the most. I am not dealing with 200 people.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Nagpur was a very small town. There was no exposure to different kinds of films or world cinema. Only Manmohan Desai films.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Someday I want to really talk about religion and blind faith. I explored astrologers, palmistry etcetra at length till I believed it was a scam. Even in ‘3 Idiots’ I take a dig at them.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“For me, cinema is happiness.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Whenever I finish a film, I feel that this is the worst film that I have made. This is bound to happen because while writing, directing and editing a film, I would have lived it 5000 times. Naturally, one tends to loose objectivity.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“So you know, as a filmmaker you have to get it all right in the writing stage. After that, one has to leave it on the judgement of your trusted ones and the audiences.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I am not really worried about how others perceive me.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I don’t understand why we learn what we do for most of it is of no use to us in our careers. To get a grade, students learn just about everything and later none of this is relevant. Grades become more important than learning.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“I get so many scripts a day but none of them inspires me. If I get a good inspiring script, then I will be most happy to make it into a film.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Writing a script consumes so much of time.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“When I make a film, the yardstick is my mind. If I laugh at the jokes and feel sad at the serious undersides, then the subject works.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“No one sets out to write escapism as a film’s subject matter unless, maybe, you are making a fantasy flick.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
“Without its roots in reality, I don’t think escapism can survive.”
― Rajkumar Hirani
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