“I have a huge fan following in Bellary, and when they met me, they told me about their problems. I have seen mining done without proper safety measures and not taking environmental protection into account.”

“I have a huge fan following in Bellary, and when they met me, they told me about their problems. I have seen mining done without proper safety measures and not taking environmental protection into account.”

“History and social sciences were my interests. I was always interested in knowing how societies get organized, why there is rich and poor divide, why there are classes. I was never apolitical. I think we are all political in a way. Politics decides our day-to-day life.”

“Politics organizes our lives. We can't disregard it. Politics has lot of muck, lot of dirt. But that doesn't mean you have to be away from it. It's ubiquitous.”

“I don't believe in planning for things. I just want them to fall in place, unfold as they like. I never design things. I want films to choose me; I don't choose films.”

“Caste is a delicate issue. It's ubiquitous, and we are full of it. We should start to change things from individual level. But when you go to people and deny caste, they may not react favourably. I think if a decisive percentage of people, especially elites, start marrying out of their caste, we may see a casteless India in a generation's time.”

“Right from my childhood, I have believed in a Supreme Power. I don't know whether it has form, or it is formless. I am a high school dropout. How come life has given me so much? It's not my intelligence, it's not my abilities. This understanding makes me scared even in success. I don't own my success. Neither do I own my failure.”

“Life is bigger than cinema. Cinema is just a part of life, so I never take success or failure seriously.”