Filmmaker Mansoor Khan Says Writing Is His First Love: ‘Films Are My Stepchildren’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Filmmaker Mansoor Khan, known for directing hits such as “Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak,” “Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar” and “Josh,” faced the threat of losing his land in Mandwa to a proposed airport in 1997. The experience proved to be a turning point, which he describes as a moment of “satori,” or spiritual awakening.

It sparked a deep sense of empathy for Indigenous communities and farmers facing displacement and eventually led to his first book, “The Third Curve: The End of Growth As We Know It,” which examines the unsustainability of modern economic systems. The phase also took him to Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, where he ran an organic cheese-making farm, Acres Wild, for nearly two decades.

Related Stories

Aamir Khan Reveals He Doesn’t Watch Films, Says He’s More Of A Reader (EXCLUSIVE)

‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ Director R.S. Prasanna: Aamir Khan Has Reputation for Backing Cinema Which Others are Scared To Touch’ (EXCLUSIVE)

During this time, he also wrote his second book, “One: The Story of the Ultimate Myth,” which argues that the ecological crisis is not caused by humans as a species, but by the culture of “civilization” that drives overconsumption and resource exploitation. Speaking to Variety India, Khan reflected on what led him to explore sustainability through writing.

Discussing his first book, he said, “The activism in Mandwa and research on the madness of so-called ‘growth’ led to my first book, ‘The Third Curve.’ Our economic paradigm is based on growth, which is actually a cancer curve. It is unsustainable. You deplete natural resources like forests. You blow up mountains. It is not possible to continue growth on limited resources. That is why we have dying forests, disappearing species, dropping water levels, climate change and financial collapse. But our system does not show us the connection between all these.”

A decade later, Khan published “One: The Story of the Ultimate Myth,” expanding on how modern civilization contributes to ecological collapse. The book examines how a culture of consumption, rather than humanity itself, drives environmental degradation. He contrasts this with indigenous communities that live in closer harmony with nature.

“Conversely, ‘One Cultures,’ indigenous and tribal societies, live in sync with nature, perceiving it as interconnected. The lion does not consider himself the king of the world. He is just part of the whole web. We turned it into a pyramid, creating hierarchy. These are aberrations of civilization. Apart from art, literature, poetry and music, culture is also your perspective of reality, whether you see it as a single continuum,” he said.

Over the years, Khan has built a formidable reputation as a writer on sustainability. He admits that writing remains his first love, with filmmaking coming second. In fact, he candidly describes his films as his “stepchildren.”

“I would give them stepmotherly treatment, not in the making, but in the promotion, publicity and posters. With my books, like Aamir says, ‘If anyone criticizes Mansoor’s films, he will ignore it. But if you criticize his books, you’ve had it. Jaan kha jayega tumhari!’ Because it is not about the story, it is about the thought.”