Imtiaz Ali Quotes

I would like to do more feature work. I intend to do that. To be really honest, it's an economic thing because when you make a film that doesn't make what it cost back, it's very difficult to get back in the ring.

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.

I've never made a film that lost money.

A lot of things and a lot of money is involved in a movie. It is very upsetting when a movie doesn't fare well at the box-office.

If I give five flops, I won't get a job. You have to perform at the box office when you are at the top. No one is running a charity here. People are putting huge amounts of money to make movies, and they want the films to be successful. They have invested money in you, so it is your duty to make sure the film does well.

I think they quite like me when I work because I'm one of the safer directors to back, because even if my films don't bring their costs in back home, once they're shown outside of India they manage to cover the costs.

I do believe that there are some films that cannot be made without stars.

I would never make a film because I think it's going to be a box-office success.

As long as your movies don't lose money, you'll always be able to make them.

If a movie crosses budget and becomes a hit, no one cares. They care only when it doesn't do well.

I've been lucky because my films have consistently made a profit, almost all of them have made a profit. Never a huge profit, but nobody gets hurt. And therefore I get a lot of freedom.

I wrote another wrestling film script. And we finished the shooting [with Lloyd Phillips]. But Henry Winkler came out with his own wrestling film, which did poorly. So the studios passed on ours, and it never got released.

The film is not a success until it makes money. It's only good when there's a dollar figure attached to the box office.

I think you get in trouble if you make experimental big studio films.

The success of 'The Fighter' made it a lot easier to get 'Broken City' green-lit. And the buzz about 'The Fighter' also made it a lot easier to get 'Contraband' green-lit.

When we were making The Fugitive, we all thought it was going to bomb.

Isn't that the definition of a star? Someone who can get a film made?

When you do bigger films, the financiers take more risks.

Now both my films have been number one at the Australian box office and it took about two years just to get the finance for this film, so if it's hard for me then God help everyone else.

The effort always remains that my new film outdoes my last in terms of performance and gets better box office success. Box office is the sole reason why I do films.

I certainly wouldn't mind if 'Jurassic Park' turns out to be commercially successful, and somebody says, 'Hey, you were in a box-office hit, and if you want to do another movie, we'll give you five million dollars to make it.'

Most people who've had a big hit movie like 'Paranormal Activity,' the next thing they say is, 'I want to make a $100 million movie.' I have no interest in making more expensive movies.

We shot many films in Delhi that turned out to be successful at the box office. So the attachment is definitely on the positive side.

'Srimanthudu' is a film very close to my heart. It's my first production, and I'm more than happy with its performance at the box office.

It used to be the case that studio executives like Robert Evans, Darryl Zanuck, and David Selznick would put aside money for what they wanted to be great movies regardless of whether they would perform well with the box office.