After 'Chandni Bar' there was a shutdown of such bars in Mumbai. After 'Page 3' people started avoiding such events. 'Traffic Signal' exposed the money flow through the mafia. I'm not apologetic about the brutal truth in my films. Almost 70% of my films are based on reality, and 30% I fictionalize or change to suit my film.
To be honest, I hadn't realised the greatness of film music till I was exposed to film songs after I started living in Mumbai.
In all my movies, be it 'Page 3', 'Chandni Bar' or 'Corporate,' I have tried to depict honesty and reality.
I can remember, after I started doing films, my mum began going to more arthouse films. She went to see 'Edward Scissorhands' and phoned me up and said: 'What was that all about? He had scissors on his hands.' Good question. I think she should review films on Channel 4.
When I went to film school about three years ago, the first two years you're required to make a series of short films. I started making films based on short poems.
After 20 years and 250 mainstream films, I thought I should have in my library at least 50 films, films that will be talked about when I am no more.
The beauty of my job is I do all different kinds of film directing, not just surf films anymore. And I do stuff from commercials to short films to working on feature films, and none of it is based from where I live. It's all based elsewhere, so I can live anywhere and commute to where I need to go.
We can't deny that films have a bigger reach. After the popularity of the 'Slumdog Millionaire,' a lot of people started reading Vikas Swarup's 'Q & A'. From a business sense, films are a good tool to increase the number of readers.
We make movies about remarkable people like President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives in "The Island President" and Al Gore in the film, who get up every day and are driven in an almost inhuman way to make a change in a problem that they see in the world and shine truth into a very dark arena where bad actors try to lie to the American public to gain profits for fossil fuel companies. To us, that's a natural drama. And that's primarily where we work - character-based films that we hope will bring issues to life through their stories.
After you have built a fanbase, people call you to promote their films. Often, it leads to acting offers. After that, it' just a matter of your film working.
As far as film goes, I enjoy all Hollywood films and all Horror films like The Bride of Frankenstein, which also might be my favorite. I like 60's and 70's Italian and Spanish Horror films.
The film business has changed hugely. You seem to spend about 30 per cent of the time producing the films and 70 per cent talking about it.
There are films where the promos reveal all the punches and when you go to watch the film you feel like having seen it all. Such films don't last after a good opening.
Initially, I didn't have much knowledge about cinema. But once I started doing good films, precisely after 'Kaaka Muttai,' people started respecting me as a performer.
NYU Film School was the way to learn about film, to be exposed to film, to go to repertory houses, to be exposed to New York and see films. I would go to the library and see one, two or three movies a day.
After completing my graduation, I went to Mumbai and started working as an assistant casting director. I worked on films like 'Talaash,' 'Ek Mai Aur Ekk Tu,' 'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani' and 'Student Of The Year,' among others.
If you are going to call a film a 'black film' then you have to make a film that represents everyone that's black, which is almost impossible. That is why white films are not called white films, they are just called 'films.'