Censorship should never go. But we can always give a little more space to the director.
— Mani Ratnam
Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.
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.
I like songs. It's a weakness that I have.
There are filmmakers who get lucky with the first film itself, and then there are some of us who have to face difficulties.
That's the beauty of Mumbai. While some parts have grown rapidly, there are places like Churchgate that have retained their character.
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.
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.
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.
I don't believe in giving advice.
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.
I liked Guru Dutt, the way he used songs and the way he shot songs. He was a class apart.
Seeing any film after I have made it is difficult.
Certain subjects are best done with stars. Certain subjects like 'Alai Payuthe' are done with non-stars. In such films, stars are a burden.
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.
We always work for money but when you do something for The Banyan, you feel so good.
If you ask a filmmaker to analyse his own film, it would take three or four years to do that, honestly. Because when you make a film, you have to be convinced about it. You are married to that film for a year.
Let me be very frank. I make films keeping within the mainstream and my cinema is popular cinema. I love it this way.
Writing is nagging, fascinating, troublesome and exciting.
I'm not saying that every song has to be an all-time hit or the greatest ever music. That's not what you should set out to do. But you have to find out what will work best for a particular story or theme or backdrop, and discuss how not to make it a cliche or fall into such traps.
When you listen to music, you listen to music. You like it very much or not.
When I made my first film, I was arrogant and over-confident.
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.
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.
Kamal Haasan is a huge talent.
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.
I don't have to stand back as an outsider to look at society.
Even in a conservative society like Chennai, youngsters don't feel bound by conventions anymore.
The thing is that when you make a film, it is such an intense experience. It's like being married.
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.
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.
Format is just the language. Content is the only thing that is important. Form is like handwriting. Whether you write in a scribble or clean handwriting or type it, the content remains the same. You want to write in clean hand, in a kind of a clear format only because it is aesthetically pleasing. I can scribble, that's also fine.
Whenever I am abroad, I spend hours and hours at video stores. I look for classics from filmmakers from all over the world.
I am glad that we can make bold films, different films within the commercial market and still do well.
Westerners are open to Indian films.
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.
A song is a burden that you carry happily.
Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city.
I did my first film in Kannada.
Can I call up any actor in Mumbai? I can, and they can say wrong number and hang up!
The journey of filmmaking is so amazing. You start off with great confidence, and develop insecurity at the time of release. When you are ready with the finished product, you are constantly wondering if you have been honest to the story you started out with, if you got what you wanted. One is too close to the project by then to be objective.
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.
I enjoy making all kinds of films. I love action films, war films, period films, adventure films.
Every time you make a film, you want to do it in a genre that is different from your previous film, so that there is something fresh about it.
When your principal artists deliver convincing performances, the film's quality is elevated.
Once the film is released, once my job is over, I can't see the film again.
In a film like 'Kannathil Muthamittal,' I can't have a Rajnikanth or a Kamal Haasan. If you have a star, the expectation of the film is different. So, you cast according to the subject of the film. Some films are best done with stars because it gives you a base on which if you can get the correct performance, you can reach higher.
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.
When you break new grounds and try to do something different, it's always a high. I remember the first time we did a whole song in slow motion with lipsync for 'Geetanjali.' It was not prevalent at that time. We just had a method and we tried to do that. We weren't sure whether it was going to work, but that is the kind of risk you take.
A film is between you and the audience. The distributors are the only people in between us. It is a straight equation.
