Paheli director's top 10 films

Recently, Time magazine announced its list of the 100 greatest films of all time, and the eclectic selection includes five Indian films.

While none would question the brilliance of the selected Indian classics like Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy, Guru Dutt's Pyaasa and Mani Ratnam's Nayakan, rediff.com decided to ask Indian filmmakers, artistes, technicians and critics what they felt were the best Indian films of all time.

Today, we speak to Amol Palekar, unforgettable 1970s leading man and critically acclaimed director, whose Paheli, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji, releases June 24.

"I have a simple yardstick to measure the movies worthy for this list," he explains to Raja Sen. "Each of them is a landmark film and has opened up a new avenue, and given us a new idiom in filmmaking."

"I have also consciously avoided any films that I am associated with, so that the objectivity of the selection is not questioned."

Check out what our top moviemakers say about India's Best Films

Cast: Vishnupant Pagnis, Gauri
Directors: Vishnupant Govind Damle, Sheikh Fattelal

Cast: Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Prithviraj Kapoor, Durga Khote
Director: K Asif

Cast: Waheeda Rehman, Guru Dutt
Director: Guru Dutt

Cast: Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Amjad Khan
Director: Ramesh Sippy

Cast: Balraj Sahni, Farooque Shaikh, Jalal Agha, Gita Kak
Director: M S Sathyu

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri, Satish Shah
Director: Kundan Shah

Cast: Smita Patil, Girish Karnad, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Amrish Puri, Naseeruddin Shah
Director: Shyam Benegal

Cast: Subir Banerjee, Uma Das Gupta, Chunibala Devi
Director: Satyajit Ray

Cast: Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Niranjan Ray
Director: Ritwik Ghatak

Cast: Charu Haasan
Director: Girish Kasaravalli