He is not someone who gives up easily. Having been in the industry for over 33 years, his story is certainly that of the struggler who walked out victorious. He is perhaps one of the few directors who have production houses lining up to have him make a film for them. With blockbusters like Welcome, No Entry, Singh Is King, Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha amongst many others to his directorial credit, director Anees Bazmee, has also been at the helm of writing a string of successful films.

In this exclusive chat with Businessofcinema.com, Bazmee holds forth on what it is like working with stars, his views on critics and the industry and throws light on his forthcoming films.

Excerpts:

Honestly not many people know how Anees Bazmee actually became this huge director, do tell us about it.

(Laughs) My actual name is Anees Ahmed, but my father who wrote Urdu Shayari used the name Bazmee as his pen name, so I too started using that name because I always want my father's pen name to be with me. I was 13 when I entered this industry and I have been in the industry for more than 33 years now. It started with me taking my brother Raees's pictures to various places because I wanted him to join the film industry as he was an extremely good looking kid. Though he never managed to get the work, I got a few offers which I took up. I tried my hand at a lot of things within the industry like editing, script writing, sound and then became an assistant director to Raj Kapoor saab for Prem Rog and went on to assist many other directors. After that I became a writer, something I never wanted to become.

To become a director it was very difficult. Only those who were friendly with actors became directors. I thought if I couldn't do this then I should become a writer and earn some fame with writing. All the films I wrote went on to become silver and golden jubilee films. The first film I wrote was Swarg starring Rajesh Khanna, and then there was Prathibandh, followed by films like Bol Radha Bol, Ladla, Deewana Mastana, Gopi Kishan and so on. My directors used to ask me why I wanted to turn director given the fact that I was already a successful writer. Finally after having spent many years as a...

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