He says, `Jo daba ke rakha tha itne time se, all that has come out in this film. For Ram-Leela, I looked at Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The colour palette is red because after the Catholic colours. and the Muslim green of Saawariya, I wanted to move into a new zone. So I went back to my Gujarati roots. I went back to my Bhuleshwar childhood which was replete with achaar and theplas. It's the first time I've named a heroine after my mother. Ram is like my father. This is a tribute to a love story that I wanted to see as a child - the one I hoped existed. I've given my all to Ram-Leela and couldn't make it better if given another chance.`

To a question he replies that 'Khamoshi' he feels was a dishonest moment in his career because somewhere, he compromised. He was forced to change the ending. He was told that the audience would stop watching the film midway, so he gave in. Since it was his first film, he didn't know any better.

On a question about Saawariya, Bhansali says that yes, it failed, but he would have not changed anything about it. It is the film that he wanted to make. He is proud of it.

`The moment the first trailer of the film goes out, a part of me goes out with it and when the film releases, in a way, I get released from it. Within 10 days, I'm onto the next film. I've never taken a break of more than two-three days after a film. I want to quickly get onto the new story with a new team because that's the way I get rejuvenated,` adds the director.

He further explains, `I can't live in my comfort zone forever. It's really funny because till date, action in my movies hasn't gone beyond a slap. Whenever I used to call (action director) Shyam Kaushal, he would get very irritated and tell me, 'Kya, thappad hi maarne ka hai na, iss ke liye mujhe kyun bulate ho (There's only going to be a slap, why do you call me for it)?" But this time, he had his work cut out. Violence is now a part of our lives. Violence is intertwined in Ram and Leela's love story.`


Bhansali says that Deepika is like his mom. She's graceful, outspoken yet very teekhi. Deepika has a lovely swan-like neck but her head is firmly on her shoulders. He connects to an actor, then he gives a part of his self to that actor. They also surrender to him. But it's an unconscious process. You realise this only when you see it on screen. Ash is so special in Devdas. Rani is so special in Black. It just happens. As a filmmaker, he lives for that moment when actors see themselves on the monitor and tell him that he never knew he could do this or look like this. The joy on their face when they say this, he lives for that.

`Over the years, I've learnt that the best approach is to just follow the flow of the character. You can't analyse a moment of love. My films are in strange spaces. The characters I write are anyway unpredictable, so their chemistries are also "off". They can't meet in a predictable way, like in a college campus. The impossibility of making it is what excites me. Taj Mahal, Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Mughal-e-Azam kaise ban sakte hain, that's the endeavour. To make films, characters, music that stand the test of time. On paper, none of my films seem possible,` sums up Bhansali.