I am proud of the fact that I am the first South Indian director who has been accepted by Bollywood wholeheartedly.
I'm a proud Indian but I feel very, very happy that people have accepted me here as well in the west. It's the people here in Britain that have given me my newfound fame here, so I owe it to them. We must give credit where it's deserved. It's not just the Asian community, it was also the British people who voted for me on Celebrity Big Brother and wanted to see me. So, I'm very happy and I think I'm a good eclectic mix of both cultures.
A lot of Indian musicians settled abroad are fusing Indian music with reggae which I find very impressive.
In the '50s, audiences accepted a level of artifice that the audiences in 1966 would chuckle at. And the audiences of 1978 would chuckle at what the audience of 1966 said was okay, too. The trick is to try to be way ahead of that curve, so they're not chuckling at your movies 20 years down the line.
I find that, rather than the cities, I'm very lucky because the audiences that come and see me are very, generally speaking, truly kind, so I have a great time playing everywhere.
Be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, "I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother." Say, "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother."
Indian mythology and its characters have always fascinated me and I find the antagonists especially very interesting.
One of my favorite things about animation is that the boundaries are as limitless as our imaginations. If we can dream it, we can make it. And if we do it well, audiences will believe it wholeheartedly.
The Indian heritage plays a very important role in my career, I have always wanted my Indian roots to be with me. I was also influenced by the urban culture around me back in the day.
I always remember what my dad told me when I decided to turn into an actor. He was emphatic that whatever I do, I should get accepted by the audiences who watch my films.
When I talk of primordial innocence, I hear it in Sufi music with the nay flute. I see it in Coptic icons, in most traditional art, particularly art of the American Indian. I find the texts extraordinarily beautiful and very childlike and very simple. I've been particularly interested in American Indian texts.
I still can't believe that I was accepted by Telugu audiences because I don't know Telugu. Without knowing me, the Telugu people gave me their unconditional love.
We come from a very mixed family. We're a bunch of different races, my family. So it's very normal for us. I don't know why we're accepted. Are all of us accepted or just me?
I have to say, my family's always been incredibly open and encouraging of any way I might want to express myself. At a very young age, they accepted that my outlet would be writing, and comedic writing, and they were pretty accepting of that.
I find Indian music very funky. I mean it's very soulful, with their own kind of blues. But it's the only other school on the planet that develops improvisation to the high degree that you find in jazz music. So we have a lot of common ground.
For a woman who didn't want to be an actress, who is too tall, lanky, shy, and who didn't fit into a Hindi conventional heroine, I am overwhelmed that my audiences have accepted me in India and the world.