MUMBAI: In a candid interview, filmmaker Deepa Mehta talks to Subhash K Jha about her film ‘Midnight’s Children’. Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

Tell me your thoughts on the film as it releases in its home country?

I am super excited about ‘Midnight’s Children’ release in India. To bring the film home feels totally appropriate.

Sadly Mr Salman Rushdie who is in India has been stopped from entering West Bengal. Does it anger or sadden you that we have cultural intolerance overtaking our lives so brutally?

Yes, the Kolkata incident is very demoralizing. As solidarity with Salman it made sense not to go as well. Tragic, as we toured Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai without an incident It does not anger me, it saddens for sure.

Have your dear mother and darling daughter Devyani seen ‘Midnight’s Children’? What do they think?

They love it ! Well, to be fair they ARE entirely subjective.

Mr Kamal Haasan has threatened to make his films from outside India. You have been put in the same situation in the past. A sense of affinity?

Any target of the cultural police is a friend of mine