"I don't believe in birthdays. It's just a day in my life," he shrugs.

Age obviously is really just a number for Bhatt. He still knows the pulse of the young audience well. Listen to the music from his upcoming production, Tum Mile, for proof. The songs rock and are riding up the charts.

He spoke to rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf and revealed what keeps him young at a time when most of his contemporaries seem to have lost their touch.

At 60, you can still connect with audiences who get younger every week. How do you do it?

You have to reinvent yourself continuously, particularly in this business. You have to let go of your past certainties.

The surest recipe of failure is to keep building on your past successes.

If you think yesterday's success will see you through tomorrow, forget it.

You have to demolish old models and arrive at new formulae. You have to live in the real world.

The apathy of the Indian filmmaker makes him disconnected. You have a lot of surface dazzle, cinematic razzmatazz, but you are disconnected from Indian-ness. But that does not mean you don't touch India of bygone days.

The moral references and dreams of young India under 25 have changed. Their definition of love has changed.

Today, it is love at first sight and break up at first fight. It's very easy to fall in love these days, but very difficult to stay in love.

Why? Because we are living in an age driven by instant gratification -- instant coffee, instant entertainment, Twitter, Facebook, connect now. Everything now.

The romance of sending a postcard and traveling days to reach your beloved has gone. Now, youngsters send SMSes. We are in different times, so we have to make products for this generation.

When did you realise times had changed and that you needed to reinvent yourself?

I did that in the early 1990s. I junked my Saaransh and Arth models to make Aashiqui and Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin.

Then I reinvented myself to make Jism and Murder in the early 2000s. People wondered what had happened to the Mahesh Bhatt who had made Arth and Saaransh. They said he has become depraved and has deteriorated.

No, I was reinventing myself. I knew India had changed. Youngsters embraced these products.

Yes. He was frightened when I decided to take this dangerous route away leaning on stars. But I told him that we have to be self-sufficient no matter how shaky our feet are.

That is the difference between a company that leans on a star and a company that is a star in its own right.

How do you touch base with today's youth?

I ask youngsters what they want, and how they respond to situations. You have to listen. You see, we talk all the time.

We must listen to the youngsters and they will teach you.

Are these the words of your guru U G Krishnamurthy?

UG has been the breath and blood of my life. I am what I am because of my long and intense association with him.

No regrets. If I can relive my life, I will do the same things.

What more can I ask for? I am living life on my own terms. I am producing (films), creating and writing. I have exuberance that will shame an 18-year-old boy.

You've given hits but never blockbusters or iconic films.

To make a Jannat or Raaz is no less an achievement. Name one person who works without stars. There's nobody.

I don't know why people don't want to lean on their own strengths. I feel liberated when I get up in the morning and walk on my own feet.

I don't need friends. The audience is my friend.

Did you celebrate your 60th birthday?

I don't celebrate birthdays. I worked on my book; I'm hoping to complete it this year.

What can we expect from your next film Tum Mile?

The film is based on 26/7 when Mumbai was caught in the floods. It is about young people, who fall in love easily, but stay in love with great difficulty.

It also says that we must not waste time patching up because life will not wait forever.

It was difficult to work in water, but the actors -- Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan -- were committed.

Had it not been for director Kunal Deshmukh, this film would not have come out well. Pritam has composed great songs.

Responding to the story, which appeared in HT City on December 12, Bhatt has written to the paper, "I only feel sad for artistes like Abhijeet. When you talk about art, you talk about emotions, sur, melodies, that transcend borders, and yet you indulge in the most perverse kind of rhetoric because it kind of serves your politics.

Do you know Abhijeet has gone to Pakistan four times and given passionate speeches from the dias urging the people of both countries to trancend the politics of hate?

It only pains me to see him do the complete opposite here at home. It is not the terrorists from outside who will destroy India, it is the terrorist within. I can fight a Kasab. How can I fight an Abhijeet who masquerades as my own?

Who pretends to be an artist."

Responding to Abhijeet's allegations that the Bhatt family "is importing artists from Pakistan with a motive", Mahesh writes, "I have also given singers from Nepal and Bangladesh an opportunity to sing in my films. Why does he not mention that? Is it because it does not suit his politics of disinformation? When it comes to national security, my son and I will be more than willing to co-operate. But don't you have an eye to differentiate between a witness and a suspect? There are hundreds who are being questioned, but no one talks about them because they are not celebrity kids. When your own fraternity, a member of it, someone who sits with you, eats with you, somebody who does a gesture of pranam to you indulges in this kind of loose talk, it kind of saddens you. This is what a terrorist wanted to do. Destroy the peace, camaraderie and harmony. And he has succeeded. I forgive Abhijeet for throwing a brick at me. Because I truly believe that we can't carve out a future without forgiveness."