Dans le cadre de l'édition spéciale de Tehelka sur les habitudes littéraires en Inde pour l'année 2009.
Is there a book that changed or transformed your life? How – why?
The Bhagavad Gita. I always have a copy of it with me. There is a lot of philosophy in it. It talks about human life in such a particular way that if you have some tough questions, you can read it and you will certainly find all the answers you need. It is a very wonderful book for that, made for everybody. When I read the book, I found all the answers to the questions my parents, teachers and friends could not answer, and particularly: what was the cause of my whole struggle?
In everything you have read, who would you count as the most inspirational character you have ever encountered?
From the Bhagavad Gita again, Vishnu. In my youth, I've been also very inspired by Fountainhead, and by Hoard Roark, its protagonist. For about twenty years of my life, I've tried to be like Hoard Roark, who is an extremely arrogant person. It is through him that I understood the ego. What I find inspiring about Hoard Roark is that his ego arose out of knowing himself, as opposed to others whose egos arise out of not knowing themselves. You can’t know more than me, this is my ego. This book and his main character completed me.
Which your favourite book-to-movie adaptation? Why?
The God Father, because it is the only case in which I have found the movie to be better than the novel. It is very difficult to adapt a novel and this is the best adaptation I have ever seen. I think it was shot to be much longer than it appears, and then edited excellently. Distribution of scenes and balancing of them is just perfectly right.
Is there a book that changed or transformed your life? How – why?
The Bhagavad Gita. I always have a copy of it with me. There is a lot of philosophy in it. It talks about human life in such a particular way that if you have some tough questions, you can read it and you will certainly find all the answers you need. It is a very wonderful book for that, made for everybody. When I read the book, I found all the answers to the questions my parents, teachers and friends could not answer, and particularly: what was the cause of my whole struggle?
In everything you have read, who would you count as the most inspirational character you have ever encountered?
From the Bhagavad Gita again, Vishnu. In my youth, I've been also very inspired by Fountainhead, and by Hoard Roark, its protagonist. For about twenty years of my life, I've tried to be like Hoard Roark, who is an extremely arrogant person. It is through him that I understood the ego. What I find inspiring about Hoard Roark is that his ego arose out of knowing himself, as opposed to others whose egos arise out of not knowing themselves. You can’t know more than me, this is my ego. This book and his main character completed me.
Which your favourite book-to-movie adaptation? Why?
The God Father, because it is the only case in which I have found the movie to be better than the novel. It is very difficult to adapt a novel and this is the best adaptation I have ever seen. I think it was shot to be much longer than it appears, and then edited excellently. Distribution of scenes and balancing of them is just perfectly right.