A Quote by Priyamani

I was labelled a jinx. No one wanted to work with me. I was home for about six to eight months without any films. I did modeling. In fact, at one point, I contemplated quitting films. That's when director Ameer called me for 'Paruthiveeran' and I cannot thank him enough for it.
I was a good student. For a while, my parents did make me cope with school and films simultaneously. But after a point, this wasn't practical. I had to choose between studies and films. I chose films.
I'm interested in seeing films that confront me with new things, with films that make me question myself, with films that help me to reflect on subjects that I hadn't thought about before, films that help me progress and advance.
I wanted to do - there was this film called 'Magic' that Anthony Hopkins did. And the director wanted me. The writer wanted me. Joe Levine said no, I don't want any comedians in this.
I was never the kind of girl who said, "One day, I am going to be a beautiful bride, and I am going to have a family." I wanted to work and support myself and make my parents proud. All I did was work. I did three or four films a year, and felt like I was on a treadmill. Finally I said, "Nothing is exciting to me anymore." So I took six months off, which turned into a year, and said, "God, I don't miss it." That's when all kinds of interesting things crossed my path.
When I met Ram Charan, he told me not to worry about how much my films make. After 'Magadheera,' people began expecting big things from him. So he did films to keep up to that expectation. He advised me to not fall into that trap.
Well I’ve been doing it for about twenty years, I did films when I was a little kid, when I was about six or seven, I was in films and I had this really high voice, I did a series called Dinobabies, that was my first one. And then after that I did Madeline, yeah so it just kind of happened and then never went away. Then everyone said your voice is going to change and you’ll be out... No, no, still on helium.
Films have been my only passion in life. I have always been proud of making films and will continue taking pride in all my films. I have never made a movie I have not believed in. However, though I love all my films, one tends to get attached to films that do well. But I do not have any regrets about making films that did not really do well at the box office.
Lot of people liked me in 'Manorama Six feet Under,' 'Oye Lucky Lucky Oye,' 'Dev D' and 'Shanghai' and the only common thing in all these films is that when we were making them we never thought they would work. The ones that did not work were safe films.
Acting in two films would mean four months of the year, which would leave eight months for me, and if Bollywood needs that time from me, I am ready to give it a shot.
The films that have influenced me and the films that have motivated me and inspired me were films that resonated, films that made me think after I saw them.
Directors like William Friedkin (Killer Joe), Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike) and Lee Daniels (The Paperboy) got in touch with me and wanted me to be part of their films. That was a whole new chapter for me. I didn’t chase any of those films and it made me think that I was right to take a chance, say no to the kind of thing I had grown tired of doing, and wait until something good came around. And it did.
I'm happy that my films were discovered by chance by foreign film festivals. That makes me realise more that there is a world outside Japan too. For me, it's an occasion to meet many people and to experience directly the response of international audiences to my films. But for me as a director, my attitude towards making films hasn't changed with the fame. I feel it's not good to change as a person anyway
I guess, in a sense, 'Audition' was a film that gave me an opportunity that I hadn't had up until that point. So that's definitely one that is important to me. Then there's 'Visitor Q' that kind of taught me that there are some kinds of films that can only be made as low-budget films that really wouldn't work as anything else.
While I did not get any formal training in acting, every summer vacation, from the age of five, my father would take me to Ooty with him, and I would do films as a child star. I did over 10 films like that, and it was understood that post finishing my education, I would become an actor.
So, quite often, there are hardly any breaks. But that's fine with me as, at one point of time, I had stayed home for months without work. I have taken all the rest I needed then.
I did some films in college, and I remember working with this director that wanted to shock me so that I'd give him an expression of shock, so he poured scalding hot water on my arm during the take. He splashed it on me. He got his expression of shock, but I also got, like, second-degree burns!
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