Simon Beaufoy Quotes

People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that's not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

These days it's cool to be ethnic and to be different, but when I was a kid, it was not cool - at all. My friends would come over and my mom would make crepes with eggs, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and spinach. And they'd be like, 'What is this?'

The fact that that's the difference between Mexicans and Cubans is pronounced. It's so immediately recognizable, the way a Cuban speaks, the way a Cuban moves the hands.

I think the way the audience takes the Indian film-star is a little different from the way the audience takes the Western star there. We are considered like demi-gods here, and the reason is not because we are better or good, but because there is no other mode of entertainment in India.

England is better only because I stand out there as 'unusual'.

I would love to work in a Bollywood film as there is so much drama and colour in the films there.

Irish and Italian are my two favourite people.

The Indians have such strong traditions and aesthetics, and the people are beautiful, as are their goods.

Travelling childhoods are a common theme among actors. Army kids, embassy kids, travelling salesmen, clergy. Thing is, you learn about behaviour, that different places are separated by behaviours which are culturally driven.

This sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we are British, thank God.

The audiences for some of many of our greatest cultural events—I’m thinking particularly of the Proms [traditional patriotic promenade concerts]—is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this. I know this is not about making every audience completely representative, but if we claim great things for our sectors in terms of their power to bring people together, then we have a right to expect they will do that wherever they can.

One of the great things about making 'Reel History' was meeting British people from all over the class system. It made me realise that London is a different country.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to watch Bollywood films. There's a lot of colour and vibrancy to the Indian films.

For so long, the world has viewed West Indian culture as semiliterate and backward, which it is not. In my work, I have tried to give that world an exposure so the world can better understand it.

I like Hindi movies. Although my wife thinks the hero and heroine breaking into a song and dance every five minutes is ridiculous, but I find them entertaining.

Things work very differently in Bollywood. There is a lot of camping there.

Salaam Bombay' and 'Monsoon Wedding' are the two Mira Nair films I go back to.

I was lucky enough to have parents with a huge film library. My mum is a huge Bollywood film geek. When we were kids, we would watch Indian films with her as well as Chinese and Japanese films. My father was more into the classics, American films, and also Hitchcock films.

I was raised in France, and the American culture was present everywhere. On TV, on the radio.

My best friend, who I grew up with in Paris, is Indian. So, I've grown up listening to a lot of Bollywood songs and watching a lot of Bollywood movies, old and new.

We have always looked upon Hollywood superheroes like Super-Man and Spider-man, but Baahubali is our own Indian superhero, and the connection people have made with this franchise is unprecedented.

Like a lot of people, I also grew up watching Bollywood films.

There will be a quick rash of hairy American filth, but it shouldn't threaten the existence of decent, serious British filth.

I'm not sure what's going on in Britain. I don't know what's going on in London. Because London is no longer an English city, and that's how they got the Olympics. I mean, they said, "We're the most cosmopolitan city on Earth," but it doesn't feel English.

I suppose I do the Japanese because I just don't know China. Chinese popular culture has never evoked that instant of, "Whoah! What's that?" that I have with Japanese popular culture.