I draw cinematic and photography and art references from everywhere. That’s part of my job. So yes, you watch films, you see artists for palettes, photographers for mood.
A film like ‘Kai Po Che!’, ‘Queen’, ‘Behen Hogi Teri’ and ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ are not really independent films.
I think it’s important for an actor to see the work they’ve done because every time you revisit a work you come up with a new way of improving it. It’s a good way to brush up your craft and your skills, so I think it’s a good thing to do, keep seeing your films.
To get into the process of doing back-to-back films, it takes getting a little used to.
I just won’t sing and dance in a film. But when you have a chance to star in an Abbas-Mustan film, why will anyone let it go? I have been lucky to do films which have been different from each other.
If I bring anything to the Coen Brothers’ films, it’s my ability to change tack and create a different mood from film to film.
Many of my favorite films, if someone were to tell me simply what they’re about, I probably wouldn’t be that interested. Plot often has so little to do with what’s at the heart of a film.
My films are like clouds: their meaning keeps changing every minute.
David Dhawan is the best as far as Indian comedy films are concerned.
I’m shy by nature and don’t like talking about myself, and would let my films do the talking.
I had been working early in my life in films – since I was 11.
The freshest moments in my films have always been with unknown actors.
I’ve made some films for the military that are teaching things like cultural awareness and leadership issues, that sort of stuff. And try to, in essence, look at what training they’re doing and say, ‘This is how you can improve the training from a humanistic point of view.’
Maybe by his second year in Hogwarts, Harry Potter will learn the trick to making a movie this good, but don’t bet on it. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is one of the best films of the year.
To make films one has to take everything seriously.
Only very rarely are foreigners or first-generation immigrants allowed to be nice people in American films. Those with an accent are bad guys.
I really like conducting my music in concerts because I’m convinced it’s not just for films; it has its own life. It can live far away from the images of the movie.
Sometimes we make films just for our people, and it doesn’t reach to anyone.
Women-centric films are being made, and they are doing well.
I’m very emotional and possessive about all my films.
Telugu-Tamil producer Thyagarajan has bought the South Indian language rights for two Hindi hit films, Vikas Behl’s ‘Queen’ and Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Special 26.’ He wants me to play Akshay Kumar’s role in the Telugu version of ‘Special 26.’ Akshay and I even look similar, physique-wise.
To be honest, my friends weren’t really as into making films as I was. But I convinced them all to make some zombie films with me.
Films were always a passion for me but it was when I saw ‘Salaam Bombay’ that I decided that it was film direction that I was interested in. That is when I decided I wanted to direct films.
I like to work hard and complete my films one after the other.
It’s good to have a governing body to oversee matters in making of films, but you can’t blame films for what is happening in society.
I like watching films that have very impelling content, great persuasive language.
People may know me from films, but theater is my first love. I did about 35 plays before I even landed my first screen role. I’m very comfortable on stage, and theater is not something you can just wing.
The kind of work I do and the films I believe in, I had to take charge of making that kind of cinema.
I am profoundly fascinated by cruelty, fear, horror and death. My films show my preoccupation with violence, the pathology of violence.
My main goal was to be a cinematographer. I was making short films, and the plan was to keep uploading them on Twitter and build a fanbase there. One day, I just started making music for fun. When I made ‘Dat $tick,’ it blew up, and I saw the potential in that.
Money is not the only reason why I make horror films.
I have been told that… time doesn’t flow in a straight line in my films. It goes round in a circle. Sometimes people comment that the films remind them of Ozu. Maybe that’s right. But in Japan, nobody comments on how time passes in my films. So perhaps that is a different way of thinking.
Being attracted to my own sex was as much part of who I was as being short or blonde or drawn to the library, but I was made to grow up feeling ‘other.’ Most books, films – even advertisements – didn’t reflect how I felt, and I often watched the world from the outside.
Someone once shared a statistic with me about how long it takes women to make their second films. On average, it’s three years for men and eight years for women.
I want to be remembered for my roles and films rather than my looks.
Yes, sir, a patrol car came and took me down to a station where they were trying to develop films, but they hadn’t got the facilities to develop colored film.
I am a Communist, certainly, but that doesn’t mean I have to make films about the wheat harvest.
Salaam Bombay’ and ‘Monsoon Wedding’ are the two Mira Nair films I go back to.
Most horror films are made very cynically, and they’re usually made by studios for an audience that they know is there, no matter what they put out. And there are always exceptions – every year, it seems we have a great one coming out.
I love films for the fact that it is like working under a microscope. It is sort of like a laboratory.
Humor is very interesting to me. My films are not comedies, but there’s comedy in them from time to time, absurdities, just like in real life.
Julia Roberts most definitely would play me in the film of my life. Not just because of the hair but because she has all sides to her personality come through in films that I could just imagine her playing my crazy self so well.
I really wanted to work with Aashiq Abu, as I have loved all his films.
We need to stop objectifying our women in what we call our second religion… Our films. And our TV shows.
When I was late for shoots and press meets, my films did well.
Since I’m serious about a career in Hindi films, I’d have relocate to Mumbai.
Tyler Perry’s brand is faith, family and this whole thing that I’ve built, while my company, 34th Street Films, is like Disney’s Touchstone. We can do anything. People don’t know what to expect from me yet.
I thought about how I’d play a vampire for awhile because I grew up watching vampire films and reading books.
You will find hardly any improvising on camera anywhere in my films. It’s very structured, but it’s all worked out from elaborate improvisations over a long period, as you know.
I went to NYU thinking I was going to make a ‘Die Hard’ sequel, or maybe action and genre films for the studios, but I ended up falling in love with personal cinema.
I like old Disney films that have an edge to them.
Learning to make films is very easy. Learning what to make films about is very hard.
Not just in films, even in life, if you choose to live in a space that is comfortable, you’ll do fine.
I guess people feel that if you’re working with good directors and are known in the Hindi film industry, then you won’t work in South films. However, I believe that films have no boundaries of language, religion, or cast. If it’s a good script and a good director, I can do a film in Spanish as well.
My father came to Chennai at the age of 16 from a village in Coimbatore. He was an artist and was clear he wanted to do something, so he came to Chennai and joined an art course for eight years before he came into films.
But short films are not inferior, just different. I think the short gives a freedom to film-makers. What’s appealing is that you don’t have as much responsibility for storytelling and plot. They can be more like a portrait, or a poem.
‘Bond’ was like Christmas: can’t wait for it to come around. Being in the films brought me to a global audience, and I have had the opportunity to meet incredible people.
I’m very impressed by films like’ Whiplash’ or what Fincher does, where you get all these different… Where you get all this coverage that’s perfectly linked up. I actually find coverage very confusing. But I love sequencing shots because I know exactly where I am.
I’m proud of all the movies I’ve made. They’re not sequels, they’re not franchises. And the reason I pick my films carefully is that I don’t want to spit on my life. I like to think of myself as more than that.
I prefer working on films. I like the variety. There is nothing better than playing a bad girl for two months, then playing someone sweet for the next two. Films give you this opportunity.
Sometimes it’s more difficult to do very simple, low-key films.
I always say horror films are great date movies. In the first twenty minutes, you’re going to end up in each other’s arms.
Films go into vaults, art into museums, and music into halls of fame. Most fashion is worn for a few seasons and off-loaded into the recycling bin or, worse, some landfill.
I don’t think films about elderly people have been made very much.
