“Dekhiye, mai bina PR ke chalta hoon. Itne salon mei mera koi PR nahi raha hai, meri toh bathroom ki tilon ke bare mei koi charcha nahi kar raha, aur kare bhi kyu.” He adds, “PR is important, it is a part of the strategy. It helps your work reach people, it helps people know that something is coming. But it cannot replace the work itself. You cannot build yourself only on hype, because eventually the audience is not staying for that. They stay for what you do on screen.” Unlike many of his contemporaries navigating a hyper-visible space, Shukla, who recently directed Jab Khuli Kitab, says he has largely stayed away from a constant, personality-driven PR machinery. “In my entire career, I have never had a personal PR running behind me all the time. It was always project to project,” he shares. “But it never stopped me. People still know me, they connect with my work. That has always been enough and that’s how it should be,” he ends.