A. Well, technically I think the climax was most exciting, though there were many new techniques used in other parts of the film, like the use of the double focus lens, which use to be operated way back in the forties & the fifties in Indian films, it took us days to clean it! It’s a great lens, allowing you to focus an object in the fore & simultaneously one at the back.

In the climax, I wanted to convey with lot of emotion, the anguish, which Altaf [Hrithik] had been carrying for years, when he hits Khan [Sanjay]. We played with the Camera speed there constantly, it's called Ramping. So when you see Altaf's hand movement, it doesn't run the usual 24 frames per second, sometimes it's moving at 100 f/s and sometimes we ramp it to 8 f/s. That was really interesting. Also in the climax when Altaf [Hrithik] comes down to kill Khan [Sanjay], the sun gets covered with the idea that he is going down into the dungeons of his soul. It was done with the camera tied to a rope going down through the staircase, technically a very challenging shot.

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A. I personally feel that cinema should be seen in cinema halls. But if you missed a film on Mono in a bad theatre, then it's a good idea to buy your own copy of DVD & watch it on a nice sound system at home. The sad part is Hindi films are seen in third-rate cinema halls in US, Canada. Maybe its because they believe we make third rate cinema and we deserve third rate theatres. I totally & strongly protest against such thinking. In New York we ran the premier of Mission Kashmir in a Dolby Digital theatre and I don’t see why that should not happen all over US.

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A. Its great to see all the digital mediums and the Internet, now really happening in India. Finally, what we crave for is communication. These mediums are a boost; they make everyone more aware, communicative and inter-links the globe. You know, its something like, I am sitting in my house and communicating with people all over the world and vice-versa, whether through my films or Internet. I think such facility is commendable and most exciting. With new digital mediums, now are opportunities for the new comer's and the old goers in film making, to experiment and state boundaries, with negligible financial risks and pressures to hold back. I think digital mediums open-up a whole new world for film makers in India to explore.

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A. Not really, film making for me was a childhood fantasy, which later developed into a passion. I let my passion overrule my rational senses. I am glad I did that. And I keep doing it again & again.

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A. It's very difficult for me to say which technical aspect of Parinda I excelled in; I think it’s the viewer's prerogative to decide where I excel and where I fail. In Parinda, the fact that I shot on three consecutive years on every New Years Eve, just to complete one sequence in the film with lakhs of people, was the most challenging.

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A. I would love to see a good DVD of Satyakatha, Sazaye Maut, Khamosh… in fact of all my films. I don’t own a DVD of these movies, because they are all pirated & so bad that you can't watch them. I hope that after Mission Kashmir, DEI gets inspired to put my movies on DVD and hopefully gift it to me, so that I can see my movies at home.

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A. In Parinda Kishan's role was not authored for Jackie Shroff, it was authored for Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh had doubts as usual, so it went to Naseer-u-din Shah. Naseer felt that the film belonged to Anil Kapoor, though I tried hard to convince Naseer, he told me it was a "side-e role" and I am coming to him because he was the only actor who could do such a role and asked me if I could make "Jackie Shroff" act and then he would know how good I am as a director. That was a challenge I took and the rest is history.

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A. No, it was not 'inspired' from any major Hollywood productions; I had used a lot of western classical music in Parinda. The idea behind was, that I used 'Indian instrumentation' as the love- track, between Karan{ Anil }and Paro{ Madhuri } and I used 'western classical music' …primarily Beethoven, Holst-the Mars ; Vivaldi etc.. to convey the violence of Bombay city.

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A. From India, I would love to mention the names of Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Mehboob Khan, V. Shantaram and early Raj Kapoor. Internationally, I would like to mention Fedrico Fellini who is my all time favorite, Jean'luc Godard who I really respect, Francois Truffaut was really breezy, Michaelanglo Antonioni was very inspiring. Well these were the filmmakers I grew-up on. Of course not to forget the father of all, Akira Kurosawa. An amazing man, I was fortunate enough to have a personal meeting with Kurosawa, when he came to India for a film festival. He was truly the Guru of Cinema, I feel.

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A. It would be absolutely fascinating to do such a film. Well I could do many things if I had a multi-million dollar budget & three years to make. It would be something like Crouching Tiger.. from India and it would show the rest of the world what a good Indian director could do, like what Ang lee has done from China. I think its time that people with multi-million dollar budgets look here, maybe Zulm.net could ask its people to contribute 100$ each and raise such a budget……, we can have some fun with that kind of money, it will be great.

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A. I am working on two film projects. First one is a English language film called Chess. I am going to Austin, Texas in USA for almost 4-6 weeks to research for this film. This film is based there and deals with a Governor who becomes the president of America. It's an exciting project to do, since its targeted for the world audience. My second project is a Hindi language film, tentatively named "1 + 1" which I am currently writing. It’s a film, which deals with mind-games and conflicts in our heads.

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A. I would like to ask all the people who appreciate my cinema, to hang the pirates if the law permits them. I think the piracy of video markets by baniyas in India and the US, selling our movies with absolute immunity, as rotten vegetables!! which can never taste good, is totally criminal. It’s a hideous crime; they should be ashamed of what they are doing i.e. if they have any shame. We make these movies, working days into nights for years, to attain the quality, which we want our audience to enjoy. My message to the people who go to these grocery stores is that they should realize they are buying third-rate products with terrible sound & visuals. The Grocery store people are ruining the experience of watching a Hindi movie at home. So burn and destroy all the pirated copies, as they are immoral and unethical apart from being sux to watch.

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