After 'Dil Aashna Hai,' I became busy, as my daughters Esha and Ahana were growing up, and I had to look after them.

For any cultural performance involving me, the response from Kolkata is the most critical. If I pass here, I will pass elsewhere.

I think I have aged gracefully.

Stray cattle roam every lane and alley, but we are building cow shelters and trying to resolve the problem.

My number one thing was that if I ever did get successful enough to make it, I wanted to be able to give back to my family.

I was mortified by my parents - what they did, who they were, everything. I hated who I was. I hated everything, and I would live in a fantasy world and try to be different. But that's not a lot different, I think, than a lot of kids.

I remember sitting there on my father's couch or my mother's couch, listening to this lecture about how there were two groups and we had to be separated. We've come a long way from this kind of open racism. And I think it's wonderful.

I don't take much from my own father, because he was a very austere, quiet, private man who would come home from work, go to his parlour and play Beethoven on his piano.