'I have nostalgia for Ladakhi culture, which is common to both Muslims and Buddhists.' 'It is kind of a Buddhist way of life. You are compassionate and nice to each other.' 'You are good human beings.'

'The problems that the film explores still remain. It was a different time when we made the film. We were young and we thought we could change the world.'

The show takes its own pace to pick up, but then when you least expect, it grabs you by the throat, notes Aseem Chhabra.

'Pandi was promised something, that is not happening, so his anger is not of a villain's.' 'That's how all normal humans would react, or they stay silent.' 'Our violence is our silence. So in this world, everybody is innocent.'

In the biggest surprise of the night, Emma Stone grabbed the Best Actress trophy for the complex portrayal of a Frankenstein-like character Bella, in Yargos Lanthimos' electrifying and most original film Poor Things. Aseem Chhabra recaps the 96th Annual Academy Awards.

Martin Scorsese, 'the reigning king of cinema', gets an honorary Golden Bear at the 74th Berlinale.

'I thought of a suppressed country and a free world.' 'If we travel from one to another, what will that road look like?' 'What colours, music there will be? What kind of people would you see?'

'Usually, we are always worried that we are missing out something in life.' 'We are very keen for the audience to have this as a cinema experience in theatres.' 'You get the rare chance to be patient.'

'I went to a school in Baroda, where if the boys harassed us, the teachers pulled the girls aside and said, "Oh, your skirts are too short".' 'They made us feel ashamed of having any sexual feelings or having bodies that were growing up to be a young women.'

Aseem Chhabra rates the movies he's watched in 2023, and tells you where you can watch them!

'This was a film, a story that had never been told before.'

'Find a name that changes the words honor killing and hopefully it includes the word murder.' 'If you use the words, you are trying to justify the murders.'

Aseem Chhabra lists his favorite 2023 films -- a healthy blend of Bollywood, Hindi indies and some of the best work that is being done in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Bengali cinema.

2023 was a good year for international cinema with many strong films premiering at the Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto film festivals.

'When democracy first came to Bhutan people had no idea and they were like 'What is that?' Oh it's that thing they have in India where the leaders are always fighting and arguing.' When I screened the film to Bhutan's film committee, they thought my film was good but they were concerned about that line. They wanted me to change that line. They said, 'We don't want to offend India.' I tried to tell them that Indians have a great ability to laugh at themselves but they insisted I change it.'

'Agra is about sexuality and sexual repression, and the relationship of sexuality to the physical spaces that we are in.'

'The idea of this movie is to trace these journeys and not to blame.' 'We could have talked what happened in 1948. This is what the Israelis did. This is what the Palestinians and Arabs did.' 'We didn't want to go there.'

'What the film shows is an India, which was headed in a completely different direction than where we are headed.'

'I guess things happen when they have to happen.' 'And the film got delayed by COVID a little bit. But yeah, it's been a decade which I do not regret.' 'I feel like I have grown so much, as an artist, as well as just a human being.' 'So much life experience to channel into films that I think is an advantage almost.'

'The only violence I have had in any film of mine is a slap.' 'When Nikhil narrated the film to me, I was blown away.' 'I was literally screaming out of my chair.'