Ali Abbas Zafar on the bond between him and his leading man and why switching genres is important for a filmmaker
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 24, 2019)

At 28, Ali Abbas Zafar made his directorial debut with the 2011 Katrina Kaif and Imran Khan-starrer Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. He followed it up with three films with Salman Khan, and the duo has emerged as a formidable combo. Now, Ali is looking forward to their reunion with a franchise. Excerpts from an interview:

How did your friendship with Salman take off?
I was an assistant director on Marigold (the 2007 Salman-starrer) but our first interaction happened while I was directing Gunday and he was shooting for Ek Tha Tiger. Katrina, who is close to both of us, introduced us. He heard Gunday’s story, and reacted positively to it, saying it’s a typical mainstream potboiler. He is like family to me. I treat him like an elder brother. The maturity in my work comes from his experience. When you do a film with Salman Khan, you can’t alienate a section of audience.

How do you react to fall-out reports between the two of you?
I don’t need to answer anyone because we know what our relationship stands for. I have never seen anyone write an article saying ‘oh, things are great between Salman and Ali’ but people only want to write that things are not great. They are more interested in writing wrong things about people.

How did you become a filmmaker?
I was doing a lot of theatre while studying at Kirori Mal College (in Delhi). I was involved in stagedesigning, acting, direction. Since then, I was clear that I wanted to be a director. After finishing my last project as an assistant director (Badmaash Company), Adi (Aditya Chopra), who is my soul brother and responsible for who I am today, told me, “Ali, I see a strong creative side in you, why don’t you start writing?” I had already written Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. He heard the story, and it was locked within seven days of the first meeting, while the cast was in place in another month.

From a rom-com to a sports drama (Sultan), an action thriller (Tiger Zinda Hai) and now, a family-drama with Bharat. You have switched genres with every film…
Exploring new stories gives you the same excitement as that of your first film. I don’t want to be termed as a filmmaker who makes a certain kind of cinema. It is important to explore new stories so that you don’t become boring with your work. Sometimes the appreciation will be universal, sometimes it will be mixed. But it’s important to keep trying.

Which one has been the most challenging?
It has to be Bharat because we tried to compress 70 years of history in two hours and in doing so, one has to be sure of what to retain and to edit out. Also, since it’s a period drama, I had to find emotion in something that I had not experienced in my life—it came from research. The film was not a copy-paste of the Korean original (An Ode To My Father). I made it a completely new film.

Did you think Bharat was riskier than the previous films as well?
Since Sultan and Tiger were big blockbusters, SK and I decided to team up on a film that’s different. We were aware that the new film’s business might not be the same as Sultan or Tiger Zinda Hai as we were on a slightly unconventional route. At the box-office, it has not done similar business as our previous films but is still a big money spinner for everyone associated. Not all films are meant to make Rs 300 crore at the box-office.

Since it’s Salman, a lot of people expected more action in the pirate scene, but you did not play to the gallery...
His character has been brought up with the philosophy of non-violence. The idea was to make people realise that violence is not the answer and the biggest problems can be solved by sitting across the table. We wanted to take a newer approach rather than have people say, “Ab toh Salman logon ko marega.”

You have thanked Baahubali writer, K V Vijayendra Prasad, in the film. Why is that so?
I think that thanks came from Atul (Agnihotri, producer) because when I was doing Sultan, Mr Vijayendra Prasad was developing the script for SK and Atul.

Is there anything you wish to change about your previous films?
With Bharat, I would want to rework the music because when we were working on it, we were sure that it would have a strong appeal, but it didn’t turn out the way it was intended. On Tiger (Tiger Zinda Hai), given the available resources, a little more time and we could have executed the action even better. In Sultan, if I had more time, I would work on the fights that SK had in the MMA section. I feel a bit more work on Gunday’s script would have made it stronger. The first film is always special and since I was learning while shooting Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, I wouldn’t want to change anything.

What’s happening with the third instalment in the Tiger franchise?
Right now, I am on a break in Dehradun, but I will be working on the script and as soon as it is ready, I will share it with SK. He is busy doing big films one after another and when we find a window, we will jump into Tiger 3.

And that would be your next directorial?
I haven’t decided on my next film as there are two stories that I am toying with right now. One of them is Tiger. Depending on which one I finish first and availability of dates, I’ll decide my next.

Is the second script also for Salman?
Well, that’s something I’d know only after completing the script.

Have you thought of a spin-off on Katrina’s character, Zoya, from Tiger franchise?
We are working on something which is a spin-off for Zoya, but let’s see. It is very important to lock the story first as only after that everything is possible.

What are the pressures of directing a big franchise like Tiger?
There is always pressure working with Salman, but when you do a franchise, it just multiplies. It is essential to write a bigger and better story every time you decide to carry forward the franchise. With my combination with SK, people put extra pressure and it gets even tougher.

Lastly, any plans to cast Salman and Shah Rukh in a film?
That is my dream project and inshallah, someday, I would write a story that brings them together in a film.

Neha Maheshwri (BOMBAY TIMES; June 1, 2019)

He might have a few box office winners to his credit, but director Ali Abbas Zafar says that his craft is not rooted in formal education. Instead, it’s the world around him and the works of a few Indian and international filmmakers that has inspired him and helped him evolve. In a candid tête-à-tête with BT, ahead of the release of his next, Bharat, Ali talks about why he is a firm follower of Mahatma Gandhi, and the blind trust that Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif have in him. Excerpts…

Bharat is your third film with Salman Khan after Sultan and Tiger Zinda Hai (TZH). How has your equation with him changed over the years?
The relationship between an actor and director has be to be honest. During Sultan, my relationship with Salman was different, which changed while working on TZH. And, it has matured further with Bharat. Arguments and disagreements are bound to happen; if I can disagree with my family and friends, it can happen on a film set, too. However, I never impose myself on Salman or Katrina and it’s the same with them. Sometimes, I fall short, and other times, they do. But it’s never about pointing fingers at each other.

Katrina was part of your directorial debut, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (MBKD, 2011). As an artiste, how much has she evolved over the years? Her performance in Zero (2018) was appreciated by everyone...
She has evolved phenomenally. When I worked with her on TZH six years after MBKD, I saw a different person altogether. As an actor, what you do in front of the camera is not the only thing that’s important, what you go through in your personal life also matters. Everyone learns and grows with experience. For example, when I watch MBKD today, I feel that I made such an amateurish film. Maybe, I will feel the same about Sultan, TZH and Bharat when I watch them 10 years later. One should be critical of one’s own work, learn from it and do a better job in the next project.

Did you have to alter the script of Bharat when Katrina came in place of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who opted out because of personal reasons?
Priyanka was doing something, which was giving her a lot of happiness. She said that she could manage the film, but her dates would go for a toss. I couldn’t do anything about it, as I had already zeroed in on my release date. If that wasn’t the case, we could have pushed it. However, I wasn’t upset. Marriage is very important, and Priyanka is still a good friend of mine. When Katrina came on board, I gave her the script and told her that we would retain only what she wanted. However, after reading it, she told me that she didn’t want anything changed.

You talked about how experiences help an artiste grow and evolve. How do you look back on your own journey? Could you take us back to the time you chose to be a filmmaker?
I had no intention of becoming a film director. After completing my schooling in Dehradun, I joined Delhi University (DU), where I was part of a theatre group called The Players, which boasts of a huge legacy of stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, Satish Kaushik and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. That’s where the writing, directing and acting bug bit me. I realised that I wanted to do films and found it to be more exciting than biochemistry. So, I came to Mumbai without any connections in the industry, but still landed work with a big banner. Five years later, I made my first film. I didn’t have a formal training in filmmaking, but learnt everything on the job. I was fairly good at studies, especially science. And when you are a science student, you understand technicalities really well. Cinema is applied art, where you really need to understand what the camera and the sound do. However, as far as the script and sensibility is concerned, it is internal and emotional. I feel that balance shows in my work.

Is there anyone in particular who inspired you?
Back home in Dehradun, I was hardly exposed to movies. At home, we had a DVD of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Deewaar (1975), which is phenomenal. So, everything I do today is somewhere inspired by Yash Chopra’s work, along with movies by international filmmakers. People’s lives inspire me a lot as well, whether it’s The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi or Bhagat Singh. Their stories helped me evolve as a person. I always believe that whether it’s a play, story, poem or film, what matters the most is the perspective that you want to show your audience.

Well, viewers seem to relate to your perspective, given the fact that your previous films were hits...
God has been really kind. But that’s always been my approach. For me, it’s all about relatability and the conversations happening around me. They somehow become the driving force behind my point of view. That’s the crux of cinema — it’s entertainment, but with that, if you can give the audience some content or a story they can identify with, you are through. My films reflect my own value systems and beliefs in some way or the other. Having said that, I also know that viewers come to theatres for entertainment. So, I am not here to preach. As Katrina Kaif says in Bharat, ‘Itne bhaari gyaan ki koi zaroorat nahi hai’. As a filmmaker, the most important thing you need is clarity about the story and its relevance.

You said that you have been inspired by real-life heroes like Mahatma Gandhi and The Dalai Lama. Does that prompt you to feature your heroes as larger-than-life on screen?
Till the time my hero doesn’t trigger anything emotionally, physically or do something for society, he is not a hero. Obviously, physicality plays a big role, too. I always ask myself one pertinent question: Why will the audience watch my hero or heroine? When I say hero, it doesn’t represent only the man in the film, it’s also the female lead and other characters. These days, people use the term ‘content’, as if it has just dropped from nowhere. The films I grew up watching, had content. So, why do we keep saying that Indian cinema needs content? The fact is that our stories are changing and we need to narrate relevant stories instead of old ones. My own films, which have worked, had strong and relatable stories. Relevant stories will always draw the audience; a bad story will not work even with the biggest stars. Actors are not superheroes. What makes them superheroes are the films they do.

Four directors, who have set their last few films in their favourite cities, tell Mirror why they find themselves returning there every time they have a new story to tell
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 15, 2019)

SHOOJIT SIRCAR: ‘Everyone in Delhi is a character’

Location: Delhi

Films: October, Pink, Piku, Vicky Donor

Delhi is my favourite city because I did my schooling and college there, and also theatre. I know the streets, the people and the food. Chhole bhature and kulche are the first things my team gets for me every time I am there.

Everyone in Delhi is a character; they can be a part of every film. I’m comfortable with the milieu and the characters inhabiting it mirror the messages of my films. Vicky Donor was set in Daryaganj while Piku was in CR Park where I’ve lived. Pink reflected it’s dark side and the location was a character with an identity. October was set in the hotel industry there where I’d worked. I know the winters in Delhi quite well. There is no commercial reason for setting my stories in the Capital, it’s just for sentimental reasons… Out of love for my memories.


SRIRAM RAGHAVAN: ‘I wanted to capture bits of Pune which would completely change soon’

Location: Pune

Films: Andhadhun, Badlapur, Johnny Gaddaar

The first film I shot in Pune was for my FTII diploma film, a fantasy titled The Eight Column Affair, which was set in the popular local newspaper Maharashtra Herald and was shot in various locations, including MG Road (Main Street), St Vincent’s High School, the Kirkee War Memorial and the Herald’s press. I did my schooling and college in Pune. As a kid, I watched as many movies as I could, and have fond memories of cinemas like the West End, The Empire and Natraj, among others. It’s a beautiful city, and much easier and convenient to shoot in than Mumbai.

Geographically, Pune has helped me with scripts of my last few directorials, Johnny Gaddaar (2007) and Badlapur. Badlapur is an actual place between Pune and Mumbai. And while Andhadhun could have been shot anywhere, I wanted to capture a bit of the Pune which would completely change soon.

I shot parts of Andhadhun in the theatre Rahul 70MM, where I’ve seen classics like Jaws and Enter The Dragon, for cheap thrills.

The old Westend Cinema near Main Street was a wonderful theatre too. It had cane armchairs and a soda fountain. The theatre is long gone, and a hotel stands in its place now. We shot the interval scene of Badlapur in that very hotel.


ALI ABBAS ZAFAR: ‘I remember complete chaos when we shot in Old Delhi’

Location: Delhi

Films: Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

The most important aspect about Delhi is natural and architectural beauty. I did my college there so my characters subconsciously land in Delhi. It is also because every location in a film is also a character.

I shot my first film, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, with Katrina Kaif and Imran Khan there. After that I went on to shoot at similar locations for Sultan, Tiger Zinda Hai and now Bharat. During Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, we were shooting in Old Delhi and I remember complete chaos when it came to security because 5000 people landed on the set. We had to lock the premises and couldn’t get out for a long time.

ANEES BAZMEE: ‘Makes sense commercially as we get subsidies’

Location: London

Films: Pagalpanti, Mubarakan

Whenever I visited London, I’ve loved the place and the weather. I have a lot of friends there who keep sending me food so there’s an emotional connect too. It also makes sense commercially as we get subsidies to shoot there. Besides, things just align whenever I’m shooting there.

We started shooting Mubarakan in February, when it is terribly cold. I shot outdoors at night for the first two days. It was difficult but we pulled through before moving indoors.

Pagalpanti will start on Sunday with a night schedule close to Carlton Gardens in Westminster. In the film, the jungle is supposed to be haunted, leaving the actors terrified of ghosts. We will also be filming at Allerton Towers, a 35-acre park in South Liverpool, as also Leeds, besides London. It is a 60-day schedule. I couldn’t to be back in my favourite city.

Katrina Kaif takes a gander at her Bollywood career, her roles and her image
Upala KBR (DNA; October 29, 2015)


You’ve been acting for 12 years now. What has changed?
(Laughs). Have I? Okay, I will take your word for it. A lot of changes... I have become more experienced, knowledgeable, acquired the tools to accomplish what you wish to accomplish... Acting is something where you constantly keep learning, evolving and bettering yourself. Earlier, my interests and involvement were far more superficial. My hard work, focus, desire and ambitions were always there but the real passion for acting or creating a character, probably a bit more creative involvement... that definitely came much later. And rightly so, because I didn’t come in with formal training. You start understanding things, opening up more, get more conscious... It happened to me in many peaks, throughout my films, like I got good feedback for Namastey London. Maybe, I am more open to diverse characters or to trying different things now. Earlier, I was quite clear that I wanted to do only this kind of a film or role, I knew what I wanted and that was coming to me, which was good.

What hasn’t changed?
My hyperness... People see me as this cool and calm person, but I am hyper! My obsession for knowing what’s going for scenes, rehearsing, making things look aesthetically proper, for getting involved in every aspect of acting.... We all definitely strive for perfection. Especially in areas that I understand very well like dance, songs, costumes and glamour — I am very particular about that.

How do you react to criticism that you play it safe and don’t do author-backed roles?
True. The weakness or the fault lies with me and my choices. The roles I did were my choices. This is where my heart was. I did those roles because I wanted to be a part of all those films — Ek Tha Tiger, Jab Tak Hai Jaan or a Dhoom3. Yes, smaller, heroine-centric, offbeat films and characters were coming to me at that time but I didn’t feel like doing them. Maybe that was a lack of foresight on my part. Do I look at it more seriously now? Yes. But not out of a desperation to sign anything. I will do a film that I am passionate about. If I see a film with an author-backed role but it doesn’t excite me, then I am not going to do it. I am open to doing films of any size, budget or language but my heart has to be in it. If someone tomorrow comes to me with a role where I would have to shave my hair or cut it very short, or the character has a tragic life but still is interesting and fun, I would probably jump at it. Only because the story and role has elements of something I find beautiful. For example, like Fitoor.

You liked it?
I loved my character! It is very complex, conflicted and not easy to understand. In fact, nobody who has seen the English film has been able to understand it, which has also sometimes been one of the weaknesses of the film. But I think Gattu (director Abhishek Kapoor) took care of those weaknesses and just made it beautiful. It’s one of the best characters that I have ever played. Apart from having someone like Abhishek, who is a critically-acclaimed director, the moment I heard that it’s adapted from Great Expectations, I was in love with it! I was so happy shooting for the film! There are some films you feel glad about when are complete, but Fitoor is one film I would happily re-shoot for. Everything about the character, Gattu’s direction and the way he sees cinema was so exciting and fulfilling!

Do you feel good roles don’t come to you because of your pretty Barbie doll image?
I disagree. I feel I have done film with great roles. Yes, I have played the glamour girl in some films but they were fun to do. I have done good roles too like Namastey London, Raajneeti, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. I have had the time of my life while doing MBKD. Ali (Abbas Zafar) and I went mad improvising through the shoot! Jab Tak Hai Jaan and New York were such great roles! Dhoom:3 may not have been an emotional role but had lots of dancing. Let’s not forget that in India our culture has so many wonderful dance forms, dancing is extremely popular and the whole country watches dance shows. We love dancing, it’s in our culture so let’s not belittle that.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I wish I could see myself five years from now. Hopefully, with the person I love and still doing good work. I would love to continue working or else I will go mad! You don’t need to stop working after marriage anymore in Bollywood. At least till your child is born. I can’t sit at home doing nothing so work to me is more important to me than anybody can imagine. Look at so many successful actresses working after marriage... Kajol, Vidya, Kareena... You just need to be on the top of your game. That’s all.

Arfeen Khan, doesn’t like to be called Hrithik Roshan’s life coach, but prefers the term ‘performance coach’
Manish Mishra (DNA; August 16, 2015)


When I ask him about being a life coach, he’s quick to correct me. “I’m not a life coach, I’m a performance coach which means I enhance mental performance. It can work in any area of your life while a life coach will probably give you an advice. In my opinion it’s overrated because who the hell knows about life? I can’t give you an advice on how to live life, but I can change your perspective on how you view the world. In a nutshell, what I do is, I change the way people view their world. I don’t give them solutions to specific problems. How can I do that?”

He explains with an example. “You make money, you lose money. It happens all your life. I can bet you a million dollars that your belief system is about money. You may have some past memories attached to it that are negative so whenever you’re making abundant wealth, your brain says get rid of it.” So what Arfeen does is, he tweaks and changes that perspective. “Once I got a cocaine addict and in four hours, I got him rid of his addiction. I just take their perspective and I show them what could happen if they carry on. They’ll change. I’m more of a performance coach.”

‘If your life is a mess, deal with it’
“I was young and ambitious and I knew I was intelligent. but when it came to exams, I’d flunk every time. I’d think, ‘What am I going to do with my life? I don’t have the education and the background’. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not dumb, I’m fairly intelligent’. After I failed in my exams, my father asked ‘What are you going to do with your life in the next five years?’ I thought to myself, ‘There’s got to be something, there’s got to be a way for me to become popular’. I started researching and I came across a few development programmes.”

He wanted to take charge of his life. Then he came across few behavioural sciences like Neural Linguistic Programming and mastered them. “I would go to someone with a phobia and they would get rid of their phobia like that. I would meet someone not confident of public speaking and fix it. When I applied it to myself, I started a business, when I was 20 years old and in two years, I was financially free, I was driving a Ferrari, with a complete turnaround in personality because I changed myself. But then, what happens is, I make the money and within the next few years, I’m broke. Because when you make the money quickly you do tend to blow it too quickly. I was really down and out. I discovered that all the successful people in the world who are happy, know how to manage their emotions. They don’t believe that life is about positive thinking which I don’t believe by the way, which I think is a total waste of time. If your life is a mess, it’s a mess, deal with it. So I decided to look at life the way it is. I modified my own behavioural methods, and I started implementing them on my staff and team.”

One seminar led to another
“One day someone invited me to speak. It was a Rotary club type of an event and I got an amazing response. Because I had gone through it myself, I knew how it worked. So many years, 47 countries now, half a million people. No matter which country you go to, everybody is the same. I can take a middle class person, an upper class person and a poor person and they’ll have identical problems. No difference. Lucky for me, my job is quite easy. In a nutshell I got into this not because I wanted to do it but because it had such a profound impact on me. I realised there are so many people out there who are unhappy. There’s so much pressure on people to earn money, have a car, etc. People are having a tough time now. In India especially, relationships are a mess, people are in financial debt, they don’t know what to do. I can’t tell people to be positive.”

‘Indians are people pleasers’
“The problem with India is that people are brought up with the mind set of — not to make mistakes. ‘You make a mistake, you’re punished’. If you’re punished, next time you won’t take a risk, you’ll play safe. You’ll find here, children when they grow up, when they are 24-25, they’re still looking for parental guidance, which I find nice yet strange. They can’t make a decision, they’ve been told all their lives not to make mistakes. Abroad one good thing is that you’re encouraged to make mistakes. If you make a mistake there, it’s not frowned upon. Having said that, things are changing here now. We’re also told to please people. Everyone is a pleaser here. Men have massive complex because women are becoming stronger and men are turning into pleasers. There’s a conflict. So if there’s one thing I could change in India would be the nice guy mentality — ‘pass your exams, don’t make mistakes, keep quiet’.”

He adds, “On the other hand, you’ve got so much culture here, long hours of hard work, bonding, entrepreneurship and high energy people. If I were to pick between living in the West or living in India, I’d pick India any day. The challenge here is everybody wants to ape the West. Nothing wrong with that. When people are trained to be someone they are not, there’s a massive conflict. When I came here first, most of the problems were financial — ‘how do I make money, how do I gain stability?’ Today 80 per cent of the problems are in relationships. There are relationship challenges galore. Divorce rates are going up. It’s not because women are becoming independent but because people can’t keep up with the really fast-changing world.”

Hrithik and I
“I’m not Hrithik’s life coach and I want to make it very clear. We’re friends. We share ideas. There’s no hiring a life coach to make life better.” When I ask him why Hrithik sounds preachy and philosophical in most of his interviews, he’s quick to defend the superstar. “In my opinion, the way he speaks may come across as philosophical but what you hear is genuinely the man. I don’t think he’s stubborn. I didn’t have to guide him. It was the other way around. He guided me on how to lose weight. I followed his advice to the T for eight weeks and I lost 12 kilos. I pushed myself over the limit. We hang out. We have coffee. We talk. We share information. I ask him, how to increase my metabolic rate, he’ll ask me how to gain focus. How to do things he wants to do. He’s an exceptional guy and whatever he touches will work. He wants to become better. Being a superstar, he can impact the world in a profound way. He’s got loads of challenges in his life and he’s overcome them. He’s good at what he does. I didn’t help him.”

He recalls his first meeting with the superstar. “I have known him for four years. We met through his trainer Satya who’s been a friend of mine for 14 years. The conversation started with ‘What do you do? What’s that? Never heard of that before’. We started hanging out and became friends. Then for losing weight, I thought, who’s the best guy I could think of and I thought of Mr Roshan. He’s very open with information and he’s not shy to share it with anyone. He gave me the guidance.”

Brush with films
“I was in a movie called Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. I’m not an actor but someone tricked me into going for an audition. I play an autistic guy and I look big in the film. Then I lost weight.”

Personal life
“I have a wife who’s amazing. We don’t have children. We had a miscarriage. I love children. I’d love to have four or five by now. I’m from London. I keep coming to India on and off. My parents are from Kolkata but they’ve been in London for 60 years now. My father has been into businesses like domestic water filters and a driving school. My brother and sister are also based in London. I met my wife in Mumbai. My wife now is an actor on TV — Sara Khan. She acts in a lot of TV shows. It’s been her passion. It’s very strange I met her through a friend of mine. I saw her. I met her two to three times. I said to my friend, I’m going to marry her one day. I don’t believe in love at first sight but I just knew.”

Books
“I have written three books. Become Rich Now With Network Marketing, The Secret Millionaire Blueprint and You Can You Will It’s Your Choice. The fourth one is being published by Penguin Books. It’s really bizarre because I failed in English three times. I never passed. Now I’m writing books. I say that not because I’m proud of that. I transcribed all my chapters in my first book and it was published by McMillan. Next one, I self-published it because the publishers weren’t pushing it the way I wanted it to be pushed. I must have sold 90,000 copies without going in the book store. Now my book is actually going to be launched by Hirthik with a foreword by him in August, in Delhi. The one published by Penguin is to be delivered in October. It’s called, Where will you be in five years time.”

My seminars — live reality TV
“I work with corporates and ask them why would you hire someone only on the basis of their degree. How about the way they communicate, they move forward. In my line of work, my seminars have gone from 50 people to a few thousands. If you come to my seminar, you’ll be shocked. Some woman will stand up and say, ‘my husband is a b******’. People in India don’t do that usually because one is not comfortable having a conversation. It’s like a live reality show. It’s amazing how India is changing. This wouldn’t happen 10 years ago.”

Life coach coming out of corner
“Ultimately results will decide. I believe in ETR: Earn the right — for me to come and coach you, I need to earn that right. How do I earn that right? I should have sufficient evidence to prove that I’m capable enough to do what I do. Now unfortunately this industry, people read a motivational book, they mug it up and they become a life coach. It’s dangerous. Most people who come to me are not the people who are depressed, they are the kind of people who want to make a difference to their lives. A lot of life coaches deal with people who are depressed. Next five years it’s going to be a jungle, it happened in the US early on and over a period of time, there will be one or two or three, who’ll be set apart from everyone else.”

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; March 7, 2014)