One of my earlier films is 'Quigley Down Under.' That was early on in my career, and that was horsey.
I used to do films for money earlier. I never knew what perception meant. I didn't give too much attention to scripts. It was either to buy a house or to buy a car. There was a certain frivolity to the way I used to pick up things. I wasn't taking my career seriously.
Fortunately, now I've got myself in a position where things are about story and not money. In my earlier career, it was more about getting my foot in the door and to get enough money to live, to be perfectly honest.
Though I'm happy with the response to the film, I've been hearing the feedback that 'Yennai Arindhaal' has traces of my earlier films. It was meant to be like that. Since it's part of a trilogy, hence the reference to the other two films in the franchise.
Before being a person, man is an animal, with all its reptilian compulsions. And if at some point you block the conscious part of the mind, you've got all the reptilian compulsions that come out.
Everybody wants things now. If I hadn't been given the time at Stoke, or at other clubs earlier in my career, I don't think I would have ever been successful.
As for documentary, it was a natural progression from my earlier career in journalism. The two media are connected, but of course making films is much more complicated, because you have image, sound and music to work with, not simply words.
I would love it if my films made a lot of money, and may I say that 'The Yards' is the only one that's lost money.
Looking back on the long haul in my career, little films, big films, TV, the Western thing has been really good to me.
Even though my family was accepting of an unusual career, cinema, my journey in it has still been a tough one.
I like serious films and earlier used to do only such films.
Not only comedy films, I have also done films based on serious issues with Raja Chanda earlier.
I gladly, I voluntarily gave up the kind of commercial film career I had going as soon as I had enough money to finance my own films. I didn't make that money necessarily from the film business, but I eventually made a lot of money and that's what I do. Of course, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate, and I'm pretty content with my life.
The good thing about New Orleans is that, overall, it's an accepting place. It's accepting of eccentricity, it's accepting of excess, it's accepting of color, in the sense of culture, not necessarily in the sense of race.
When I was a teenager, the way some of these kids out here be actively gay, it would have been ridiculed in the hood. And now the hood is a bit more accepting. Begrudgingly accepting, but definitely more accepting than 20 years ago when I was a little kid. That doesn't mean that anybody should stop fighting for equality just because people are begrudgingly a little more accepting.
People don't remember my work in my earlier films, as 'PKP' has been etched forever in their minds. So, I get similar kind of roles.