Film-maker Apoorva Lakhia on Martin Scorsese’s films
Martin Scorsese’s films have impressed me the most. All his films have become landmarks of cinema. Whether you take his most recognisable work, Goodfellas (1990) or any other film, Scorsese has always picked unconventional subjects. I was five when I first saw a Scorsese film. It was Mean Streets (1973) and I watched it with my father who was a big movie buff and the head of the Gujarati Film Society. He would organise screenings on his balcony every week on a big monitor, for members of the society.

Though I do not clearly remember what Mean Streets was about and I cannot claim to be an instant fan of his work, but I do remember that I did like the film. Subsequently, I started watching and following all his films. Today, the scenes in my films are inspired by them.
In Shootout at Lokhandwala, for instance, the scenes which depict shootouts between criminals and cops were inspired by Goodfellas, which is my favourite Scorsese film. My favourite scene in the movie is Joe Pesci killing a guy in a mall and joking about it to his pals. I too have shown criminals laughing and joking while they are fighting the cops. This is a typical Scorsese trait—diluting scenes of violence by including funning dialogues in them.