Television is a prisoner of dialogue and steady-cam. People walk down a hall, and the camera follows them around a corner.
I've always been better at informing the audience through images than through words, but I took on a script that was so dialogue-intensive, that the words had to do all the informing.
In most of his films, Upendra has a harsh and rough demeanor, and Sudeep also has a very massy commercial image. In 'Mukunda Murari,' though, their characters require them to be very different and near silent.
Tolkien is eminently filmable, I think. 'The Lord of the Rings' is intensely... landscaped. But 'Discworld' is about dialogue, which is one reason why it might be hard to film.
It's harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters.
I'm very influenced by Mike Leigh and the way that he always has these climactic confrontations, like in 'Secrets and Lies' and 'High Hopes,' in which the ensemble cast meets in one location.
In a way, we tried to make 'The Salvation' a contemporary film with contemporary emotions. At the same time, in the script, you get a feel that all the small talk is not a part of our universe. It's more precise talk.
In so many musicals today, the story is moved forward by a song. I don't think we're gonna try to do that.
For a long time now, movie characters have generally been articulate, even chatty. Call it the influence of Woody Allen, but we have become used to characters who are well able to explain themselves to others.
