'I wouldn't say Queen is a benchmark. For a 17-year-old to perform in Gangster, Fashion, Life... In A Metro, Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai is remarkable. I am a very bad girlfriend apparently. This is the feedback I have been getting from the time I started dating,' Kangana speaks out.
'This may seem like a lyrical lamenting of a writer, but it is the sad reality in and outside the industry. In films, nine out of 10 times the writer's name is not mentioned in posters, publicity or even reviews.' Screenwriter Anjum Rajabali and actress-writer Preeti Mamgain hope to make way for Bollywood's writers.
'The story has to be told well, it has to be marketed and presented well, and now, released well too.' 'Only then will the film do well.' 'The actor walks away with the victory credit, but we do not give enough credit to the script writers, directors and producers who put up a film that shines.'
'For me, success is saying 'no' when you want to say no.'
Chaitanya Tamhane's National Award-winning film seems more relevant today than when it released, says Sreehari Nair.
'What you saw in Gangs Of Wasseypur is only two percent of what really happens. Murder and other crimes are a daily affair even today. There is no value for life. People can shoot someone for Rs two! Once, I was talking to a person. I turned around to ask for tea, and when I looked at him again, someone had shot him dead.' Meeruthiya Gangsters director Zeishan Quadri talks tough.
'Trust me, it's a disadvantage because people don't take you seriously.'
'Kaala's sin is not that it is presented as a mouthpiece for its director Pa Ranjith's political viewpoints, but that it makes a travesty of them.' 'Ranjith turns Marx into merchandise, all the while functioning as a hired hand for Brand Rajinikanth,' points out Sreehari Nair.
The year saw some standout performances from lesser known actors.
'I believe politics was imposed on it by the censor board, when it gave the film's trailer an A certificate, hoping to deny children, teenagers the opportunity to watch it during prime time television shows,' says Aseem Chhabra.
Brilliant cinema at the ongoing Mumbai Film Festival, raves Sukanya Verma.
Sreehari Nair presents his Top 20 movies of the decade.
'Today is our independence day. Udta Punjab is not just a film anymore. It is a movement and one that has ended in the victory of democracy.'
'My mother has one complaint -- I die in all of my films. She has told me to stop dying now.'
'We cannot be the country that created the Kamasutra and then we show flowers kiss and a child is born.'
Aseem Chhabra lists the elements that he loved and was pleasantly surprised by in the movies.
Bollywood is in shock after Sridevi's death.
