Kalpana Nair: What was the moment you knew that you wanted to be a filmmaker?

Prateek Vats: After getting through to FTII.

Kalpana Nair: The filmmaker that has influenced you the most?

Prateek Vats: Werner Herzog.

Kalpana Nair: A contemporary Indian filmmaker that you admire the most?

Prateek Vats: Chaitanya Tamhane is very exciting. The way he’s approaching his films that he’s making. Number two would be somebody like Surabhi Sharma in documentaries because her and R.V. Ramani’s filmmaking is free of these anxieties of what a film should be. It brings out a childlike excitement.

Smriti Kiran: An actor you’re dying to work with?

Prateek Vats: Raghubir Yadav.

Smriti Kiran: If someone gave you 40 crores and complete creative freedom, what would you make?

Prateek Vats: A fool of myself.

Smriti Kiran: The one thing that you wish was different about the film industry?

Prateek Vats: Decision making about the rights and ownership and the creative processes of people involved in making the film be a little more sensitive, especially towards the writers. Also, a certain kind of championing of variety rather than having uniformity.