There is one more state in this country, and that is Hindi cinema. And so Hindi cinema also has its own culture. . . . Hindi cinema’s culture is quite different from Indian culture, but it’s not alien to us, we understand it. . . . As a matter of fact, Hindi cinema is our closest neighbor. It has its own world, its own traditions, its own symbols, its own expressions, its own language, and those who are familiar with it understand it.

JAVED AKHTAR

[Fantasy is] another name for that world of imagination which is fuelled by desire and which provides us with an alternative world where we can continue our longstanding quarrel with reality. . . . Fantasy is the mise-en-scène of desire, its dramatization in a visual form.

SUDHIR KAKAR