•Namrata S. Zakaria: But it is a great moment for Indian cinema and for the Indian crew too.

Zoya Akhtar: It is a great moment for Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto, A.R. Rehman, Resul Pookutty and Loveleen Tandon. They have worked hard. But the truth of the matter is, you don’t work in a vacuum. There is an entire system. Let’s say tomorrow, you took Vikas Swarup’s book and declare you are going to make it into a film. Let’s see how far you will get. You just can’t put posters up and release it. In America, you start doing festivals and screenings and word of mouth builds up and before you know it, you have won an award in some category.

•Priyanka Sinha: Are the limitations from within the industry itself?

Zoya Akhtar: Everyone, even your audience. Slumdog Millionaire was surely not for the Indian audience. Slumdog must have made the least amount of revenues in India.

•Priyanka Sinha: Within India, there are a lot of audiences. So why not make a movie within India for a niche audience?

Zoya Akhtar: People are doing that. But you will not get $50 million, your film will not be Slumdog Millionaire, it will be a tacky version. So you have small films but they aren’t of the technical brilliance of Slumdog.

•Namrata S. Zakaria: How much has life changed for you after Luck By Chance? What are you working on?

Zoya Akhtar: I am just tired, very tired. I am working on a holiday. 

... contd.