Top 66 Mani Ratnam Quotes

When you listen to music, you listen to music. You like it very much or not.

I am more comfortable with Tamil than Hindi.

Roja,’ ‘Bombay’ and ‘Dil Se’ weren’t planned as political films. It was a phase India was going through and these things affected me and found their way into my work.

As a filmmaker, every tool you get to tell the scene better is important.

I don’t believe that to be mainstream you have to be foolish. I don’t think you have to be a buffoon to sell. I think you can be logical, aesthetic and still work within the mainstream format.

Rahman is very very director friendly. He is ever ready to go whichever the director wants, the story wants, depending on the kind of movie or the music you want, and within that he finds his niche. It is a constantly complementary process. At the end of the day he is not pleasing you, he has to please himself.

With each film, you are still trying to get the length and measure right. And failure is all about others’ perception of you. When you have one success, they think you know it all. But if you fail, they think they know it all.

What is film-making about if not romance?

A song is a burden that you carry happily.

If you take ‘Agni Natchathiram,’ it is about two half-brothers and their emotions and those are genuine, which can be made into a very hard-hitting film just that it can be presented in an entertaining fashion. Similarly with ‘OK Kanmani,’ it is a genuine film; it is not a flippant film just for commercial purposes.

Filmmaking is not a one man show. It is not like I’m thinking something and they are expressing it. I try to pull the actor in and together we try to get the expression. It is not my thinking alone, it is our thinking. The actor also becomes a part of the thought process.

I have only one simple ambition when I make a film. That it should be the best I have made so far. With ‘Kadal’ it was no different.

When I did my first film, I had a fair idea of what I liked and what I didn’t while watching an actor in front of the camera. After I finished the film, I thought I had exhausted everything I knew. As I moved from one story, setting and character to another, I discovered something new.

My films are as much for the people as they are for me. The reception affects me, but doesn’t change me as a person. That’s important.

Let me be very frank. I make films keeping within the mainstream and my cinema is popular cinema. I love it this way.

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

You can’t say there is only one way of doing things, the police way of ensuring law and order.

In school I was sidelined by Tamil language teachers. But in the film industry, I got interested in Tamil poetry after reading and working with the Vairamuthu.

I liked Guru Dutt, the way he used songs and the way he shot songs. He was a class apart.

The thing is that when you make a film, it is such an intense experience. It’s like being married.

Sometimes in a large family, you get taken to a movie and there just isn’t enough space or not enough tickets and you get left out. Those are the movies you remember because you never got to see them!

I want to make a film that can reach as many as possible so I want to talk in a language which I can easily communicate with.

As the soul of the film it has to work for you otherwise you don’t take it up at all. It takes two years of your life, you better be interested in it. When you know it’s something you can do well, that’s when you take it up.

I am glad that we can make bold films, different films within the commercial market and still do well.

I am not against songs in films. We come from an oral tradition of storytelling. I have grown up listening to epics in oral rendition and oral rendition always had music.

There are filmmakers who get lucky with the first film itself, and then there are some of us who have to face difficulties.

Sometimes, I think filmmakers grab too much from real life.

Education is so important.

A film is between you and the audience. The distributors are the only people in between us. It is a straight equation.

At the end of the day, all I want is that my films should do well.

I used to wonder how anyone could treat a fellow human as God. I never understood why they would do this.

Sometimes casting falls in place easily and sometimes it takes a while. Fifty per cent of my job is done when I get the right actors.

Within the mainstream cinema, I feel you can experiment and make sensible films. It’s possible to tell a story with characters and emotions which are real, genuine, and which need not be over the top.

If you look at any film fest, the setting gives it colour. Be it Goa, Cannes or even Berlin in the winter, the setting makes these festivals special and gives it a definition.

Unfortunately scripts don’t chase me. I chase them. I struggle, battle, discard, pick it back, struggle further, plead with it, curse it, cajole and try to be clever. But it is invariably the script that rules.

I grew up on the commercial film format. I have grown up all my life watching films and they have all been mainstream commercial cinema.

When it comes to casting for movies, it is a priority that you cast right. The guiding principle must be what is right for the movie, that is the basis you cast someone, not because so-and-so is a friend.

The idea of ‘Roja’ was with me for seven years before I made it.

Actors are the most important. Performance is what matters. Nothing matters more than the actors; they have to perform. No one else can give life to the characters. Audiences must believe the characters as real and the moments as real.

Films will break barriers – and good films will travel all over India.

I watch films, so I know what it is to be there in a theatre as the audience. So I always want to communicate with them when I make films, but that is not the only thing. I also want to say something which I feel deeply, and which I feel I can connect with the rest of the audience.

Any good film you see gives you enough motivation and adrenaline rush to produce good content, while a bad film can get you so angry that you produce even better content.

I don’t watch my old films like ‘Roja,’ ‘Dil Se’ because I only see mistakes. I see five minutes of the film and I am scared I will start finding mistakes in them.

What I feel is great acting might be rubbish for another filmmaker. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It all boils down to the trust between an actor and a director.

The fact that technology has developed so much gives you the liberty to tell the stories, which were difficult to say earlier. It allows you to tell it more convincingly, more elaborately and more beautifully.

Language, I think, has nothing to do with film-making. It is how you make your point and whether you exploit the visual medium maintaining a certain standard that does the trick.

I am a big fan of sleek action films.

Kamal Haasan is a huge talent.

Once the film is released, once my job is over, I can’t see the film again.

Certain subjects are best done with stars. Certain subjects like ‘Alai Payuthe’ are done with non-stars. In such films, stars are a burden.

To catch a piece of life on camera and make it come alive, add layers to it and deliver a product that is wholesome is really exciting to me.

Movie criticism is very subjective and everyone has the right to voice their opinion. You go to a movie and decide whether you like it or not.

Seeing any film after I have made it is difficult.

Whenever I am abroad, I spend hours and hours at video stores. I look for classics from filmmakers from all over the world.

A director is a very selfish person. For him, his film is like his baby.

I like songs. It’s a weakness that I have.

I wish I had gone to a film school.

Each success gives me the adrenaline to move to another film.

Every film you see at a festival teaches you something.

When your principal artists deliver convincing performances, the film’s quality is elevated.

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city.

Most ideas remain inside you for a while. You tell somebody when there is a spark or a thought, and leave it at that. You come back later, write down a few lines. I makes note in my mind on whether it can be made into a film or not.

That’s the beauty of Mumbai. While some parts have grown rapidly, there are places like Churchgate that have retained their character.

Westerners are open to Indian films.

I enjoy making all kinds of films. I love action films, war films, period films, adventure films.

Even in a conservative society like Chennai, youngsters don’t feel bound by conventions anymore.