I came back from my engineering exam and told my father that I had done the test so badly that if I pass, then anyone could. Later I realised that it was a terribly insensitive thing to say to my middle class father who was struggling to make ends meet.

My father told my mother that he had given up on me. He felt that I had done the test so badly because instead of studying I was watching films and films.
Cinema is where I really wanted to be. So once I became a film director, I bragged to my father that if I had studied, I would have been earning in thousands, but now I was earning in crores. To that, my father agreed, adding quickly that if my first film had flopped, then he would have been right in his belief that I was good for nothing.
Throughout my life, I have taken decisions, irrespective of their outcome. And the results have been both positive and negative. When someone asked me to name the worst film I had ever made, I replied that it was Drohi. But it was Drohi which was responsible for two of the best films of my career, and whatever standing I have achieved in Bollywood.
I had travelled from Hyderabad to Mumbai to sign Madhuri Dixit for Drohi. Her secretary told me her dates were not available for six months. Boney Kapoor recommended a new girl called Urmila Matondkar who had done a film called Narasimha. When I saw the film I didn’t think much of her but I was in a hurry. I had got Nagarjuna’s dates and since no other heroine was available, I signed Urmila.
The film failed. She was written about negatively too. During the course of making Drohi, Mani Ratnam and I wrote a script called Gaayam. Mani suggested Urmila for a supporting role, not because he thought much of her either. He felt she might just be okay for the role. Now while shooting Gaayam, Urmila did a certain dance movement. I was so mesmerised that I was inspired to make Rangeela.
I had liked a James Hadley Chase novel in which a gangster falls in love with a girl. She does not know that he is a gangster. By the time he wants to give up crime, he dies. I had used this story for Drohi. When it failed I changed the backdrop and years later remade it as Satya. So in effect Drohi was responsible for the making of Rangeela and Satya.
Similarly when I came to Mumbai to screen Gaayam for Sanjay Dutt, he wasn’t keen to do its remake, which at that time was titled Nayak. My financiers were not keen on Rangeela but were gung-ho about Nayak. Reason: Sanjay Dutt at that time was a much bigger star than Aamir Khan. Since I insisted on doing both the films, they reluctantly agreed to fund both the projects, thinking that Nayak would cover the losses of Rangeela.
After shooting for 15 days for Nayak, Sanjay was arrested in the blast case and was in jail for a long time. Meanwhile Rangeela was released and became a blockbuster. Also in the same waiting period I did the fun caper Telugu film Anaganaga Oka Roju which became a super hit.
By the time Sanjay was released from jail, I felt instead of making a serious dark film like Nayak, let me scrap it, and make a fun caper film like Anaganaga Oka Roju and ended up making Daud which flopped. Years later I remade Nayak as Sarkar.
This is why I have no regrets about any single decision I have ever made. As long as you keep making decisions, something or the other will materialise. That’s because decisions create work.
And even if the results turn out to be bad, they just might turn out to be damn good at some other point.