Abhay Deol

“I feel my advantage of coming from a film family is - having seen fame up close, having seen the industry so close and how it works, I was not enamored by fame.”

“The Deol family is very close knit and emotional.”

“The kind of stories I like often comes from debutant directors.”

“Even as a kid, classmates asked pointed personal questions about my family. I have conditioned myself to handle it with maturity.”

“The kind of work I do and the films I believe in, I had to take charge of making that kind of cinema.”

“I'm more comfortable watching 'Dev D' with my mom than a film that makes a woman an object whose only purpose is to dance provocatively.”

“The reaction to 'Dev D' success wasn't a balanced one from my end. I ran away! I should have stayed around and seen how I could balance things. But I wasn't capable of that.”

“I enjoy films like 'American Beauty' and want to do similar films that reflect our culture.”

“It harms me when people say I am 'non-mainstream' or 'non-commercial' actor. I try to fight off such labels.”

“When you do films after films, you don't let life happen. At least, in my case, I end up relying too much on emotions, which aren't raw enough. Travel helps me to get a renewed approach towards things.”

“If we are not affected by our environment, then we have somewhere become insensitive. It might be good in a way because you might not be affected by anything and be calm always.”

“We are always larger than life because we come from this mentality that since we are a very poor nation, we need an escapist cinema to take us out of our miseries. And that's where Bollywood comes from.”

“Los Angeles is much like Mumbai, the film industry rules the city over most other professions, so it feels like home.”

“It's not that I don't want to do different films. The non-mainstream stuff that I did started to get successful... But for an industry which runs essentially on money, they do put you in a box.”

“I might say 'let's get married' because I am not rigid, I live moment to moment. These are my views and it is person to person, one should not get influenced with what I am saying.”

“With my social media posts on fairness creams, I felt really strongly that I needed to speak up about it because I think we can take baby steps. Colour and caste is engrained in our culture, but I don't think it should be applauded or packaged and sold.”

“N.Y. is like second home to me. I love that city. I have lived there for a couple of years and it's always a pleasure to go back there.”

“Acting is more creative and liberating than production.”

“There should be a tacit code or understanding among privileged people not to endorse things that give others an inferiority complex.”

“I want to do different roles and not get stuck in a rut and 'Shanghai' will be one film I'm absolutely looking forward to.”