I do not think that my life starts and ends with films. I do not use my profession as my identification.
I enjoy turning things on the audience. I really like working in genre because people come into the films with certain expectations. They know the tropes so well that, when you turn on those, it can be shocking because there’s a complacency that comes with watching those films.
I am very romantic. Given a choice, I’d do only romantic films!
Films exhaust me, they do, and I often want nothing more to do with them, but I’m continually surprised at the resurgence of the impulse to come back and do it all over again.
Honestly, I feel the films choose me rather than I go after them!
I’m glad I’m getting to do interesting films.
Money is not a driving force for me when it comes to my passion: that is, dramas and films.
I wouldn’t do nudity in films. For me, personally… To act with my clothes on is a performance; to act with my clothes off is a documentary.
Films can’t change the society; they can simply open the space for the discussion which can lead to social change and can start new forms of social activism.
The life of King Jeongjo has previously inspired many films and TV dramas. ‘The King’s Wrath’ will show the tough and charismatic sides of the king that have been undermined in past works.
What’s so great about Sundance is that they only accept such a small handful of films per year for dramatic competition, so you know when you’re going to Sundance that you’re going to see top-quality projects.
I still, by and large, make low-budget Australian films.
I am inspired by Ronda Rousey. She is a fighter and a superstar who is doing films. She is focused and dedicated. I want to be like her as a person.
Generally, drama films are made with stars – I broke the rule unknowingly.
If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.
None of the films I’ve done was designed for a mass audience, except for ‘Indiana Jones.’ Nobody in their right mind thought ‘American Graffiti’ or ‘Star Wars’ would work.
I have done ‘Mumbai Meri Jaan,’ ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!;’ they are not comedy. But those roles didn’t stick with people. Comedy films run, even though some of them are bad films. So people see these more.
Women are blessed with energy – a power which is unique. I have been very fortunate to have played strong women and explored their strengths through my films.
The nerds are the ones that make the films and do loads of other really cool stuff in their life.
Both ‘Thappad’ and ‘Tanhaji’ were films that we believed in and we’re proud to support.
I watch films that inspire me and make me want to go to work the next morning, that really push you and motivate you. So in that aspect, I look up to a lot of people.
Directing films is incredibly exciting to me.
Films do have a very big impact on the youth, but the youth do have the quality to differentiate what is right and what is wrong!
I loved cowboy films and TV series, and I learned bits of English from them. My favorite was ‘Laramie’, with Robert Fuller and John Smith. I used to watch ‘The Lone Ranger’, which had been famous in Japan as well. I idolized these cowboys.
People want a story – and my horror films have never been about only ghosts and spirits. They have their share of love, hatred, jealousy and complexity of relationships involved.
Audiences like me doing action and comedy. I am a jovial person and have been so from childhood. I like to laugh my way through my work, and that attitude reflects in my roles. Even women hate me doing rona-dhona roles. So I don’t do emotional films.
I think ‘Rockstar’ is more dear to me than any of my other films.
I came into films with ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna.’ My first film was actually ‘Hulchul,’ but it was released after ‘HRHK.’
I watched a lot of old movies. Clint Eastwood movies, a lot of John Wayne films, a lot of movies that celebrated the region of where I lived.
I’m not very eager to sit and look at my films all the time.
Entertainment came out of this thing called a television, and it was gray. Most of the films that we saw at the cinema were black and white. It was a gray world. And music somehow was in color.
It’s like the journey of a police official, who starts from a low rank and goes on to have a high rank. After doing Punjabi films, even I plan on joining Bollywood as a lead actor.
Take Punjab 1984′ or Sardari Begum’ or Khamosh Pani,’ the Punjabi mother I have played in films are all of a certain age and I have won accolades, something I did not get as a young actress perhaps.
The greatest films ever made in our history were cut on film, and I’m tenaciously hanging on to the process. I just love going into an editing room and smelling the photochemistry and seeing my editor wearing mini-strands of film around his neck.
I was not confident about my hair before films happened. But today, my hair is something people like the most in me.
Look at the films of Walt Disney: ‘Snow White’ came out in February 1938, and I can’t think of another film from that year that’s watched as much. The same is true of ‘Bambi,’ ‘Dumbo’… even, frankly, ‘Toy Story,’ which is probably watched more than any other movie of 1995.
People keep saying Balachander discovered me. I differ. He invented me. When a stalwart like him suggests that I act in films, who am I to refuse?
I love films that make you feel something but also deliver that payload behind jokes.
I like to make films, but the only reason I do is because I’m a very bad musician.
People have been asking me when I’ll make films with Dhanush and my father. Honestly, I don’t know when.
There’s so much else to do in the world. To just be interested in doing films would limit my life.
I wanted to make films, but the films being made in the 1990s were not my kind. I couldn’t break in, and even if I did manage to get a foothold, I didn’t know what I would make.
In Tim’s films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don’t get the film.
We had friendly and pleasant relationships with all that worked in our films – many happy memories.
Everybody is replaceable; nobody is irreplaceable here. If I’m going to say no to it because I want to do two films a year and sit at home, someone else will.
How long will we keep making films where hero-heroine is dancing around trees?
I make films from the heart. I want to concentrate on the job of doing great and honest performances, and I’m gonna get better with every performance of mine, with every film of mine.
I realized that I need to protect my films because the director will move on, the producer will move on too, but as an actor I will be considered a flop if things will not work.
My beliefs encompass all religions. But I never show my religious inclination in my films. My characters have dark sides; they aren’t the god-fearing characters. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I’m a very lazy and emotional person who connects with the common man.
After ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ I got to make big films that I didn’t care about, ‘Never Say Never Again’ and ‘RoboCop 2,’ and then I got too old.
I’m not accustomed to doing films without seeing the script.
Though I have worked in Bhojpuri films and had been introduced to the culture of the area, it was on visiting that region that I came to know that a lot needs to be done to improve the living conditions, and an initiative has already been made with the help of the Pardesiya Kala Sangam and Jagriti, both NGOs.
