Top 66 Rajkumar Hirani Quotes

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.

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.

You never know the depth of an actor.

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.

You need to write about something that you really know about or you deeply connect with. Don’t fake it.

I don’t think anything comes naturally; you just have to work very hard.

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.

The more you succeed, the more you want people to love your efforts.

Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ shook me as a filmmaker.

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.

Any holiday seems like a guilt trip.

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.

I’m absolutely open to scripts written by someone else.

Writing a script consumes so much of time.

I think in any work of art, there always will be randomness about what is good, what is bad.

It takes time to write a script and properly make the film and edit it.

You need to have a liberal point of view for a society to grow.

I am trying to make the kind of film that I would be happy to see.

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.

Taking nuances from real life will help you make scenes that have never been done before. It keeps the story interesting.

Film-makers are greedy people – we want good stories and good subjects.

Assuming audiences to be dumb, that’s a big fallacy.

I would love to make more films.

Making a film confusing does not make it intelligent.

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.

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.

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.

I can make any film I want to make.

I have a terrible reputation for being nervous.

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.

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.

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.

The longest break I have taken in my life was 14 days. On the 15th day, I started getting impatient to start work again.

No one sets out to write escapism as a film’s subject matter unless, maybe, you are making a fantasy flick.

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.

I feel some people are cynical by nature. You show them anything, they only see the problems and negatives.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is impossible to know what people will like. No market research, formulas will help, it’s best to stop guessing.

Nagpur was a very small town. There was no exposure to different kinds of films or world cinema. Only Manmohan Desai films.

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.

As writers, we are sketching people all the time when we write fiction.

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.

PK’ is a very unique story. There are no benchmarks in Hindi cinema to give you an idea about ‘PK.’

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.

Every actor is great in his own right but certain actors suit certain roles.

Writing is a lonely process.

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.

A lot of my writing and my detailing of scenes are based on my observations of life in Nagpur.

Editing is a meditative process. I enjoy it the most. I am not dealing with 200 people.

I try and get what I want using the strengths that the actors have.

For me, cinema is happiness.

Bad choices make good stories.

I am not really worried about how others perceive me.

Every film is a journey.

An editor does not just join shots. He creates emotions out of the shots.

Very honestly, I don’t feel ‘Munnabhai’ is a comedy film. I seriously feel it is a very emotional film.

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.

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.

When you make a film you make a film. You don’t think about how it will be marketed.

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.’

I have the highest respect for the concept of ‘Advait’ – the oneness of all humans – that is central to Indian culture, thought, and religion.

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.

Religion is man-made. Every religion says my ‘God is the best.’