Satya Bhabha

As an actor, one's role is very much to respond and react to the situation within the context of the character and his world.

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For films, the process is that you work consistently and constantly for 3-4 months and then leave; whereas for a play, you prepare for about a month and then continue performing it for 5 to 6 months.

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'Midnight's Children' falls under the genre of post-colonial writing, and there is a range of writers like V.S. Naipaul and Salman who popularised it. 'Midnight's Children' was incredibly important in this canon.

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I visit India at least once a year, though surrounding the making of 'Midnight's Children' I was there a lot more.

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I'm not a big sing-and-dance man.

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I don't know too much about Bollywood at all, but I've done quite a bit of dancing... and not much singing.

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Before doing 'Midnight's Children,' I didn't really have a chance to explore my Indian side. The Indian side of my heritage was always present, but it did not particularly define my identity. Being English was more an identity-defining status. I was born and brought up in London. Yes, my father is Parsi.

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The magical tapestry that 'Midnight's Children' unfolded became a part of a journey of self-discovery as I spent time close to my roots during the shooting.

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Flying from L.A. to India is an arduous undertaking. I regard myself more as a trans-Atlantic citizen than an Indian.

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You couldn't escape the literary atmosphere in our home. I grew up as a Britisher. I played a protagonist of every nationality in stage adaptations of Shakespeare and Brecht. I graduated from Yale. When I moved to the U.S., I realized with some amount of surprise that I was seen as an ethnic actor.

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