I understand that there are two kinds of films, there is the kind of cinema which allows you the opportunity to be an actor and then there are the masala entertainers. I have done both.
Film fests are an opportunity to see different kinds of films that you usually don't get to watch. When I'm part of a jury, then I get to judge films, but otherwise I attend festivals to watch two or three films a day and network with a gathering of cinema lovers from all over.
I grew up in the seventies, and films for us were larger-than-life, masala entertainers.
There are two kinds of directors: There's the kind where two plus two equals four, and you have to help them figure it out. And then there's the kind that throws you in a room, locks the door, sets the house on fire and films it.
The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn't.
So far, yes, I have been doing only commercial films because those are the kind of films that came my way. Those are the kind of films that I liked, but definitely I'm open to doing other kinds of cinema as well, and if something comes along - if I like a character - then I would definitely do something off-beat or edgy.
I haven't got the kind of films from mainstream cinema which I would have wanted. But then mainstream cinema has a different bunch of people who are happy working with each other, which is fine.
I love masala films, and as an audience, I like my dose of commercial cinema.
I watch certain kinds of masala films.
There are two kinds of films: the ones that are devoid of logic but can still hijack the audience, and those that can win them over with logic. Both kinds can succeed, and I like to work in both.
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.
'Damadol' is a dig at commercial cinema where I play the role of the blunt-headed producer who loves masala flicks and feels he knows everything about films.
Shyam Benegal has found a lovely voice in this film. We've all seen the kind of cinema he's come up with over the years. His films like 'Mandi,' 'Manthan,' 'Sooraj Ka Saatvan Ghoda' all have revolutionised the face of Indian cinema. And in 'Well Done Abba,' he has once again found a relevant subject, which even youngsters can relate with.
You gotta understand, there are two different kinds of Asians - the kind who are good at school, obey their parents, go to college - that kind of stuff. And then you have my family - me, my brother, all of my cousins - we're just wretched people.
In cinema we have all kinds of ways of communicating: cinematography, lighting, character performance. If you pay attention to silent era movie actors, they are big about postures and really exaggerated expressions so you can understand how they feel. We use all kinds of techniques from cinema to help communicate emotion.
The third line of cinema today is neither art nor commercial but categorized as good and bad cinema. I think two films - 'Main, Meri patni aur Who' and 'Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon' were the base films for this new line of cinema.
Theatre is an actor's medium. An actor has little control over a film. Which is why most actors who have done theatre, and then come to films find the former more creatively satisfying.