After that, I got Ismail Merchant's Heat And Dust. That changed my life because I started making Rs 7,000 a week! I moved to Churchgate's 'B' road, in paying guest accommodation, paying Rs 3,000 a month.

I also worked with Shashi Kapoor on Vijeta. His office was near Prithvi theatre, Juhu. I haven't met him in years. Prithvi theatre has changed so much! Before, there was a dirt road leading up to it. Now it looks so good.

From Shashi Kapoor, I realised I did not want to work in the Hindi film industry. Technically, I didn't enjoy working for Hindi films.

I met Rajkumar Santoshi on the sets of Deceivers. He was way lower down the order then. See what he has become now!

I left Mumbai in 1983. When I went to Los Angeles, it was quite difficult initially. I was an assistant director then and it is highly unionised there. I couldn't find any work.

Then I started working in a television station for a show called Bombay Broadcasting. It was a one-hour show with songs from various Hindi films. My job was to get advertisements for it. That was totally different from what I was doing earlier.

In 1988, I met filmmaker David Lynch. His agent was a friend of mine. David was doing a television series called Twin Peaks. I ended up being his driver.

I became a television producer in 1990. I did serials like On The Air, Hotel Room, Second Chances, White Dwarf and Hotel Malibu. Later, I started producing films like Lost Highway, Million Dollar Hotel, Buena Vista Social Club, Bhopal Express and City Of Ghosts.

In the last few years, I have been coming to Mumbai often -- to promote Bend It Like Beckham, record music for Bride And Prejudice, for Passion Of The Christ [Nayar distributed the film in India], and to promote Bride And Prejudice.

Meeting Sanjana Kapoor, who he knew as a teenager way back in the early 1980s when he worked for her father Shashi Kapoor.