I was sitting and arguing (as I often do) with Abhay Deol. I love the guy, and I love the films he does, but we fundamentally disagree on our career paths. He feels you should stick to films that push the boundaries and break new ground. I'm of the opinion that you need to balance yourself. Do classic commercial films as well as experimental ones. This is the crux of it, and we can never quite see eye to eye.

It happened one night in Delhi; we'd all been out for dinner, and then the party moved back to my hotel room. You can imagine how thrilled I was, being the sort of person who likes to be in bed by 11... Anyhow, he and I sat on the sofa discussing films at length, talking about what we liked recently (Kaminey),what we were looking forward to seeing (Wanted...come on, it's Salman Khan's return to action films. How can you not be excited?) and so on, until finally it came up."Come on man,you gotta do something different, something cool!" I'll spare you the details of the conversation, which lasted until I convinced him to let me go to bed at 5:30 (side note, saw a beautiful sunrise), but it got me thinking: what's really the right way to go about your career?

On the one hand, you could do offbeat experimental films and develop a reputation for doing good work (hopefully). On the other, you could pursue commercial success and use that position to reach out to a wider audience when you do something 'hatke'. The latter just makes more sense to me.I feel that ifI amcommercially successful, it gives me the power to do any kind of film I want; that producers will be more willing to back it, and that people will be more willing to come and check it out.

Let me get technical for a moment. Why is a star paid large amounts of money? Answer: a star is paid to get the film an 'opening'.The opening refers to how much money the film earns in the first weekend. When you have a big star, that guarantees the film will open well, but starting from Monday, earnings depend on the film. If it's not good, ticket sales will drop dramatically. If it's good, they will hold. A star is someone who can guarantee the producer that people will buy tickets those first three days, regardless of what the film is. It's that simple.

Which brings me back to the issue of balance. If an established star like Aamir or Akshay were to do an experimental film tomorrow, people would be excited to see it. That actor's entire fanbase would buy tickets out of loyalty (side note, Indian audiences are emotional, which makes them very loyal to stars they like), and hopefully they would also enjoy the movie, and get something that they wouldn't get from your average commercial potboiler. That's the power of a star. That's something worth having, because you can use it to reach out to many more people. And all said and done, I want them both. I want critical and commercial success. I want to make good movies, and I want them to be blockbusters. Tough job? Tell me about it.