It’s a behind-the-scenes look at my career, and what has shaped me. But not in that cliched way of how we see BTS videos—a camera panning. Someone saying cut and make-up happening. There is so much more that goes into the making of a movie,” says director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra of what inspired his latest book, The Stranger in the Mirror (Rupa Publications), which he has co-written with Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta. 

The title starts off with chapters about his relationship with his parents, and later, his friends, who he says could be like the fictional friends of his 2006 film, Rang De Basanti. He also delves into his successful career as an advertising professional. The son of a kitchen staffer who rose the ranks at a hotel in Delhi, Mehra’s early  movie influences, included the legendary Mughal-e-Azam. It’s the movie and his mother’s voice that he credits for him “thinking in Hindi”. The book also takes a look at the making of his landmark films, including Aks, Delhi-6, RDB, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Mirzya, and speaks about the depressive lows he encountered when some of them weren’t received the way he had imagined.