'Udta Punjab' is a story of four different people merged together. There are four different stories and four different perspectives.
— Vikramaditya Motwane
There should be a certification process to suggest if a particular film is suitable for 12-year-olds, 15-year-olds or 18-year-olds. The same thing I think applies for the Internet.
Censorship is a stupid thing. There should be certification, and not censorship. People are smart enough to understand that if a film is meant for kids, then kids will watch it and if a film is meant for adults, only adults will watch it.
My forte is editing and I am most experienced in that. I love the challenge of playing with material and imagination while editing.
I've never lived anywhere else in my life, I have a massive love-hate relationship with this city. I grew up in the western suburbs in the '80s and for everything we had to go to south Bombay - so you lived the whole city, in a sense.
Writing takes too much patience and it takes too much out of you for me to want to attempt it too often.
Of all the films that I have directed, I think 'Lootera' is the one that could have been better.
Showrunning is when you're the constant creative voice in the show. For a year-and-a-half, you are working on the scripts, you're fine-tuning them, you're the final say on the edit, the music and the cast.
I am drawn towards the sort of characters who are in situations where they don't want to be in. But that's a staple in pretty much in any hero's journey because if you have non-reluctant protagonist then how is there any conflict?
Of course, you have to think of the audience. You cannot make an obtuse film that only appeals to a small niche section of the audience.
The more shows that there are, the better it is for the industry. The writers are busy, if the writers are busy, the actors are busy.
I've come to a point where I am less nervous when I am supposed to start a film. I am still super nervous on the day but I've lost a lot of my fear about what kind of perception people have about my film.
I'm willing to fail, my producers are willing to fail, my crew is willing to fail.
Both 'Udaan' and 'Lootera' were largely rehearsed. With 'Trapped,' I left room for improvisation.
Post my parents' divorce, when I was 10, my mother, Deepa Motwane, took up a job as a line producer with documentary filmmaker Shukla Das, who was a cousin of hers. When I was 17, she did a TV talk show and I helped her with research and assisted her as she was also producing that show.
But a lot of 'Bhavesh Joshi' comes from the 'angry young man' - the Bachchan films of the '70s or the Sunny Deol films of the '80s, where there is someone who has been wronged and wants to do the right thing.
Horror movies make a lot of money in India.
Bombay is the ideal microcosm of India, of that whole sense of inequality where you could have the biggest skyscrapers next to the poorest slums.
If you are irresponsible as a parent and don't know what your kids are watching, that's your problem. It's not the creator's duty to create every show in a way that a six-year-old can watch it.
It doesn't matter how big the film is - if the story is not good, it will not be accepted. Stardom can maybe pull audiences to theatres but beyond that it is all about content.
In a certain way, I believe 'Trapped' is far more accessible than 'Lootera.' What makes it accessible is that it can happen to anyone. We all have a fear of getting trapped in a certain place or being locked out of our houses.
I think vigilantism is a pipe dream, because the larger need is for a justice system that works. Now, Batman cannot be Batman without police commissioner Jim Gordon, because every time he catches a villain, he tries to send them to Gordon. So, the idea is to help the justice system to work. I don't think it can work in real life, though.
It is extremely satisfying when you finish a script, but the process of it can be just nerve-wracking.
I like to have the actors do their thing. And then brief them what to do differently in take two.
While writing 'Bhavesh,' I pretty much chewed up every single graphic novel I could get my hands on, so all the way from the entire 'Batman' series, Frank Miller's 'Batman,' Ed Brubaker's 'Batman,' Scott Snyder's 'Batman,' all the way through 'Daredevil' to '100 Bullets,' through so many other graphic novels.
If you're making a statement just to poke, people can see that. If you're making it to say something genuinely, people can understand that as well. They are smart enough to see the difference.
I think Raju Hirani and Farah Khan are the only two filmmakers who can balance the multiplex audiences and the single-screen audiences.
Make movies that you want to go and watch in a theatre.
I love writing but it's a real pain. It's a miserable process - very satisfying but very miserable.
I gravitate towards silent characters who don't talk much.
You want every film that you make to do well, not just indie films in general.
I was born in Mumbai and brought up between Mumbai and Nashik.
I love the new Marvel films, but I am not crazy about them. It is no longer a sub-genre or a fanboy genre. It has become so mainstream. You cannot say, 'I love superhero movies.' Everyone loves superhero movies now.
Dystopia is a very interesting setting. Whether it's '1984' or 'Fahrenheit 451'... Dystopia is a wonderfully cinematic setting.
We don't have a superhero culture. Comic books and superheroes are part of American culture. We have 'Amar Chitrakatha,' etc.
I have not understood till date why we censor adult films. If someone over 18 can get married, produce children and drive cars, why can't they watch a movie?
The job of any artiste is to open the eyes of the public to their surroundings and make them aware of it.
Trapped' is unique because it focuses on one character who is stuck in an apartment.
If we go back to the birth of 'Superman' and 'Batman' in America in the '30s, they were created because of events like the Great Depression, crime and Al Capone, among others. Everybody was corrupt back then, and if you can't have a hero in real life, it helps to have one in your fantasies.
Actors love... at the end of the day, stars are actors. They love performing. And the more challenges I feel that you end up giving stars on the sets, the happier they are.
To be a showrunner and a director is beyond exhausting.
Bhavesh' is my most accessible film for sure.
You have to be honest about what kind of films you want to make.
Adapting a book is the most difficult thing because half the time you are wondering what to remove.
I am very excited about the TV medium and the Amazon-Netflix medium. It has been so liberating to work on these formats.
I like the films that gain awareness at the end - a sort of breakout moment.
I think I like reluctant protagonists.
It does hurt that your parents are not together and they are fighting. Looking back, I grew up a little quicker than I would have normally. I spent half the week with my mom and half with my dad.
My father is a Sindhi and my mother, a Bengali.
In 2007, I probably wrote four screenplays in the entire year. Every three months I was writing a screenplay.
