I want all my films to look distinctly different, like some other directors I admire. But in a way, I can’t really take myself completely out of the movies I make.
Most Pixar films are better than most live action films.
‘Taxi Driver’ is one of those films that is groundbreaking in how much you’re inside this character’s head. It uses voice-over in a revolutionary way where the audience is invited as a co-conspirator to the whole story line.
Enjoy the films I do, get entertained, get your money’s worth, and when you leave the theatre, leave it all behind!
I financed and made my own films from the start. My path has been autonomous and independent, so I don’t have any horror stories about glass ceilings and expectations and tense studio meetings.
This was in ’79. I got pretty restless there, sitting around with a lot of people sitting around smoking cigarettes and talking about films, but nobody really doing anything.
I did loads of student films and fringe theatre. I worked for free a lot.
Acting is a learning process. And what you are doing in your early films is essentially picking up the nuances, the tricks of your trade. And somewhere along the line, you become analytical and learn to enjoy what you are doing.
I do all my films happily, and I enjoy every moment of it.
All of us have our individual curses, something that we are uncomfortable with and something that we have to deal with, like me making horror films, perhaps.
There’s no one out there like Quentin Tarantino. His films have a signature look, and they never just stick to the same kind of story.
I prefer the countryside to cities. This is also true of my films: I have made more films in rural societies, and villages, than in towns.
I try to be eclectic in my choice of films. If I’ve done anything that’s intentional in my career, it’s to try to do as many different types of characters and as many different types of genres of movies that I can.
I have done many films and spoke different languages.
I would rather talk about films that I did than the films that I didn’t do.
I have no plans of doing a series of ‘Raja’ films.
They say an elephant never forgets. Well, you are not an elephant. Take notes, constantly. Save interesting thoughts, quotations, films, technologies… the medium doesn’t matter, so long as it inspires you.
Most of my films seem to be about people bewildered by the world around them, who don’t fit into it and are trying to understand it.
The films you do are not just for the audience. As an actor, you are putting your heart and soul into them.
I know some black actresses who have to wait every 19 films for a role. I can be cast in practically every one as a young white male.
I’ve made seventeen or eighteen films now, only two of which have been original screenplays, all the others have been based on short stories or novels, and I find the long short story ideal for adaptation.
When I meet fans who relate to Korean films and dramas even though they don’t understand the language or the culture, and when they talk about studying Korean and traveling to Korea because of those films and dramas, I think to myself that this is the true force of the Hallyu wave.
England is strictly class-based. What’s surprising is how many films are still made with a load of people in silly frocks running around gardens and talking in middle-class accents.
From Vietnam’s ‘Deer Hunter’ to Iraq, films are never about the person who has had his house destroyed.
I wanted to look cute, hot and sexy all at the same time in ‘Bigg Boss!’ How else will the Bollywood producers cast me in their films as the lead actress?
A lot of times black actors get stuck in a box. They’re up against a lot of limitations for the kind of films that they get approached about. It’s easy to get stuck in a box and just be approached about nothing but urban films.
I love making films more than anything, but it’s tough.
Films, fiction, can encompass a whole global vision on a particular subject with any story, whatever it is. You can play the story in whatever country with whatever language in whatever style you want to tell the story in.
I think horror films always have to be as simple as possible.
‘Alien’ is a landmark. One of the really good science-fiction films.
I’ve done a lot of Bengali films with heavyweights like Rituparna Ghosh, Buddhadeb Das Gupta and carved my niche with both commercial as well as art films.
Our function as playwrights to some extent is to make audiences see with their ears, because films make us see with our eyes much better.
I don’t make films for critics.
The film-watching crowd are mainly youngsters who see fashion on TV, in Hindi films, and in magazines.
You just have to ensure that you make good films because audiences today have become picky and smart, and rightfully so.
I would certainly say that films like Time Code and the Loss of Sexual Innocence were far more rewarding to me in terms of being able to move forward as a filmmaker.
My films do have a big following among young girls, and I want to instill confidence in them, a sense of self-appreciation – to make them feel they can be spirited and say what they feel.
Failure worries me; nobody wants to fail. There is a fear that one day, films will not come my way, or if someone doesn’t watch your film, that is a worrying point. It is unpredictable in the industry.
If some independent artists are using film as a medium to reach out to an audience, it should be promoted. Cinema is a popular medium and has a broad reach. There have been films with ghazals, classical and folk songs sung by local artists, which gave them popularity.
At the end of the day, my bread and butter comes from films, so I have to work in films that may not have a great script, but give me a fat pay cheque.
I didn’t take all the films that were offered, just those with dignity.
Persistence is half the battle. That’s what I love about independent movies. They don’t have to be made. There’s no studio with an agenda to set up a franchise like ‘Batman’ or to make a vehicle for a celebrity actor. My films are made because I love the process.
My first film as an actor was ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ a glorious experience that spoiled me for future films.
I enjoy wearing a saree more than a mini skirt and maybe that has come off as bad acting in some of my films, because I didn’t fit in there.
I was looking to play different characters, and films didn’t offer many choices.
I have grown up watching films in single screens where people would get up and dance in the aisles. With ‘Rowdy Rathore,’ I want to recreate the same magic.
The Taliban’s acts of cultural vandalism – the most infamous being the destruction of the giant Bamiyan Buddhas – had a devastating effect on Afghan culture and the artistic scene. The Taliban burned countless films, VCRs, music tapes, books, and paintings. They jailed filmmakers, musicians, painters, and sculptors.
If you really love films, and you really want to get the full impact, there’s a huge difference between watching something on a small screen with a mediocre sound system and watching it on a giant screen in a giant theater with a huge beautiful sound system. I mean, the difference is electric.
Working with David Lynch was like taking a bullet. A gun at you. ‘Lost Highway’ is, I think, one of the best films I’ve ever been in. It’ll endure a long, long time.
You create a work of art. You do not know whether it will get public sanction. Sometimes outstanding films do no business, and sometimes films which are not so good work.
What critics call dirty in our pictures, they call lusty in foreign films.
I don’t plan or schedule my career thinking first I will play a common man, then a police officer, then a superhero. I love good scripts, and I don’t care if I play the main part in it or not. I want to be a part of good films. That’s my dream… ‘Jacobinte Swargarajyam’ was that film for me.
Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you’ve done more dramatic projects or you’re classically trained.
I like to do all kinds of films.
There is a ban on Indian films in Pakistan, so that’s half of our market gone.
I started learning filmmaking by joining a weekend film school in Bengaluru. I made some amateur short films that got appreciation from people around me.
When I got out of coaching, I had taught a class at the University of California, an extension class on football for fans. I was looking for tools. I was showing them films. I was going to write a textbook. Trip Hawkins came to me about making it a game for computers.
‘Punda’ marks my entry into Kannada and ‘Krishnaleelai’ will be my Tamil debut. It was a good experience shooting for both the films.
I like to watch films with my wife and friends. That’s how films should be watched. Only then can you enjoy the movies. Then whether it is raunchy or not, hardly matters.
More and more people are seeing the films on computers – lousy sound, lousy picture – and they think they’ve seen the film, but they really haven’t.
I don’t have the time to think about what someone else thinks of me because I’m busy making films.
We need less perfect but more free films.
My main aim has always been to do good quality films with roles that have some substance. With Power and Beauty there were loads of things that I liked about the movie, which made me opt for it.
