Q: Were there parts that you wanted to leave out?
A: "Absolutely. Early on I told Salman (Rushdie) ... to write down in narrative form what he thought the flow of the film should be and I'll do the same. Separately, we wrote down what we felt the progress of the story should be in the film. We found, much to our surprise, that the points were almost identical. You know then, that your vision is the same."
Q: There's always been a debate between book lovers and moviegoers whether books are better. What do you say?
A: "Some films are better than the book. I think 'The Constant Gardener', the film was much better than the book. And some books are so much better than the films. There have been some disastrous adaptations. I think it depends on what the film turns out to be. There is the adaptation police, a group of people going 'this book should never have been made into a film', but if Salman had no problem, what's theirs?"
Q: This was also a difficult film to shoot, right? You had to shoot in Sri Lanka under a fake working title because of security concerns?
A: "That's not true at all. We came to Mumbai, looked at locations and realised that if I wanted to shoot here, it would be very difficult because nothing looks period. There are high-rises everywhere, BMW cars on the streets. That's why it was important to shoot in Sri Lanka – it's very similar, except that it isn't as built-up. There are lovely bungalows, etc. And the reason we had to shoot under a fake working title was because I didn't want to attract press, because it distracts the actors."
Q: You've made a lot of films about women and attitudes towards them in India. What do you think is behind these skewed attitudes?
A: "Patriarchy. We've always felt that the girl child is worth nothing and should in fact be aborted even before she is born. The boy can do no wrong. If the girl is treated as a sub-human, or the boy is raised to believe he can do no wrong, then this is what will happen."
Q: Do you think films can help change these attitudes?
A: "I don't think so. They can be an instrument of looking at things differently but then films also become old-fashioned and people move on."
