I never storyboard. I hate it. I don’t understand why so many directors want to make comic strips of their films.
I am a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan; I have not missed any of his films since I got hooked to ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.’
I am honored to be one of this year’s Urbanworld ambassadors for the festival’s 20th anniversary, joining my friend David Oyelowo. I have always had a special relationship with Urbanworld, back to my days as a festival publicist to previewing my earlier films and now as an ambassador.
My passion is films and making them.
I’m not scared of seeing bugs, but I get really scared if they crawl on me. I’m also really bad at watching horror films. During my freshman year of high school, I was watching a horror movie with a guy and I ended up hugging him without realising it.
I had to make a choice at one point in my life, of missing films or missing my children. It was a very easy decision to make because I missed my children so very much.
If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.
I am a citizen of the planet and I want to do films that appeal to people, not communities.
Theatre is where my heart is. It’s where I can do my best work. And even if I do films and TV, that’s what I want to come back to.
I think the films we see, the Hollywood films, which are basically entertainment, will still be there, but they’ll be in a totally different category. People won’t take them seriously. They’ll kind of end up the way comic books have. A side view of things.
Norway is a small country, about half the size of Sweden, but it has a very good film climate because they have municipal cinemas, so even in the smallest towns you have a cinema that shows art house films from all over the world.
I don’t make romantic films. I make films about human relationships.
I don’t smoke and I don’t want to smoke. I am not a fan of gratuitous smoking in films.
Showtime has given new, young filmmakers – black, white, across the board – an opportunity to make films, as well as actors who want to cross over into directing.
The sustaining fantasy of Nolan’s Batman films – which does chime uncomfortably with Romney -is that the excesses of finance capital can be curbed by a combination of philanthropy, off-the-books violence and symbolism.
I try to make films, not movies. I’ve never liked the expression ‘movie’, but it sounds elitist to say that.
I told them I belong to the same organizations and clubs Mrs. Roosevelt belongs to, but with a few brave exceptions, I was still unable to do films or television for the next seven years.
I enjoy films like ‘American Beauty’ and want to do similar films that reflect our culture.
I think there’s escapist moviemaking, and we want to be captivated and taken away. If it’s done right, you can craft an incredible film. There have been superhero films that I think are brilliant pieces of art.
Sometimes, I probably do mourn the fact that I no longer make films.
Films are always pretentious. There’s nothing more pretentious than a filmmaker.
What you write sets the visual style for the film. But you have to compromise your style in your first few films before people let you do what you want to do.
It is cool to know that my films down south are being remade in Bollywood.
But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.
John Cusack and I have been friends since childhood, and the fact that we’re in so many films together is, no pun intended, serendipitous.
Apoorva Raagangal,’ ‘Moondru Mudichu,’ ‘Avargal’ – these were all my guru K. Balachander’s films; I became a hero with these three films.
I mean, look, I wear makeup in films. I don’t wear makeup in real life. It’s just part of the gig, that’s all.
To be honest, I enjoy all different types of films and experiences.
Films should involve a director’s idiosyncrasies as much as possible I think.
There are two types of films – one made by the big-time producers, the other is low budget stuff made by some producers who make films for the heck of it, they complete their films for small amounts, sell it at low costs with almost no publicity.
Of course, all my films are high on comedy, but I ensure there’s something for the audience to take back home.
The secret of success in cinema lies in not just being talented but showcasing your talent to the audience. And, that happens only when you get the right films and directors.
All the top stars like Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh, etc. do very few films a year and I don’t think it’s affected their visibility or fan following in any way.
I’m what you call a good, old-fashioned working actor who has had delusions of grandeur for my entire career and has known what I want to do, but there’s a lot going on out there. There are a lot fewer films being made, and there’s a lot of competition.
I’m drawn to stories about ordinary people who get tangled up in an extraordinary event or idea or emotion. I’m not saying I don’t love films about super-people or super-doctors, but my preference is for stories about how we get through this life, what it is to be human, because I’m always struggling with it myself.
I’ve finished 12th standard from Poddar International and enrolled for B.A. in political science in Cambridge University, London. It’s a correspondence course, and I’ll go to London for my exams once a year. That way, I can devote more time to films.
My favorite types of movies definitely aren’t thrillers, but at the same time you can’t deny the genius of Hitchcock’s films.
The censor boards are mere redundant forces conspiring to keep the ‘bold’ films out of reach of the audience.
Films are something that happened by chance.
Having grown up watching my father direct films and having worked with him and my brother, I know how films are made, how shots are taken.
Sometimes I think I should have stayed longer and I should have done more films.
In the ’80s, when I was watching Bond films in the cinemas, Roger Moore was the man. I’ll always have a soft spot for him. His Bond films were light-hearted and silly as well as action-packed. For me, this spoke volumes. It meant that, someday, maybe someone like me with a whacky sense of humour could be James Bond.
I was called the ‘Ugly Duckling’ of Hindi films because of my dark complexion and south Indian features.
I’m not a master of films, I’m rather a slave.
I’m an athlete, and I have been interested in sports films.
Of course I want my films to look really good, but every single element is chosen for a reason. It’s telling something in the story.
I can watch films and say how technically beautiful they are, but I’m not impressed by any technicality.
More meaningful cinema is being made, and that is the reason why you see a rejuvenated Malayalam film industry. But more films aimed at youth are needed.
2019 is proving to be a golden year of Malayalam cinema… As an actor, I have always classified films as either good ones or bad ones… I had five films that released this year in the cinemas and our audiences liked every one of them.
I prefer to commit 100 per cent to a movie and make fewer films, because it takes over your life.
You have to want to be in the company of those you’re making films about.
I have a really embarrassing reaction to horror films. I break out in a fever.
Our responsibility is not just to make films for music but to make music for films.
I want to ensure that I strike a balance between all kinds of films.
When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.
It is good if newcomers have a theatre background. It helps in films.
I feel Irish-Americans are the forgotten minority group. Nobody else is making films about them.
I didn’t have a career; I made films. It’s very different.
Through these years, I have attempted to create magical moments between my characters because, be it television or films, life is about the moments we create while living through it.
There are many great writers out there and, actually, great scripts. The problem is – and this is what I’ve always felt, even when I got out of school and started reading scripts – the really smart, character-driven stuff tends to be smaller films, and they just don’t get made.
I need to be careful about the films I choose to do.
The best thing I can think of would be to create a union between something as beautiful and powerful and wonderful as Hollywood films and a criticism of the status quo. That’s my dream, to make such a German film.
I’m glad that my films have been consistently faring well rather than one stray Friday!
Be it a cameo, a character role or a lead role, I am happy that people are finally recognising my acting calibre and are casting me in their films.
It’s not like I have anything against it, I just chose the kind of films that appeal to me, and mindless entertainers don’t often appeal to me.
People often accuse me of being serious. Have I played serious roles in ‘Honeymoon Travels’ and ‘Sankat City?’ It is just that after the films were made, producers did not have money to bombard it all over the place.
