I was originally a painter, and I made films sort of as an extension of that, and then I started to try to make dramatic films because the early films were experimental films.
It's hard to get a film, you know, you need a very special film to be able to get that experimental. But, I would love to see that happen. I would love the opportunity to be more experimental than I am.
'Eagle vs Shark' was about keeping myself sane. I wanted to go back to my comedy roots with people I trusted and had worked with before and do something low-budget and more experimental.
I make an attempt to do different kinds of films. There's no such formula for guaranteed success.
I want to do experimental films.
Within the mainstream cinema, I feel you can experiment and make sensible films. It's possible to tell a story with characters and emotions which are real, genuine, and which need not be over the top.
Another thing that really excites me: I'd like to do multiple versions of the same film.
There's nothing experimental about 'Kaashmora,' as it's a blend of fantasy and entertainment. The only experiment we did was with my makeover in the film.
There are some films that really break the mold, and some films that don't. I've been looking for films that break the mold a bit.
The five directors in '5 Sundarikal' experimented, and it was a very personal exercise. Amal, Anwar, Aashiq, and Sameer have done things that they have never done before. Debutant Shyju has also made a beautiful film.
I am not running after money in Bollywood, I am experimenting with films and roles here.
Tak Fujimoto and I, when we started getting enough of a budget where we could afford the right lenses - 'cause we started out doing low-budget pictures together - we started experimenting with this subjective camera thing. And we kind of fell in love with the idea of using that as our close-up.
I don't want to be typecast as a heroine who does a certain kind of cinema, which is why I experiment with the types of films that I do. But yes, I won't deny that romantic love stories or romantic comedies are what I enjoy doing the most, because as an audience those are the kind of films that I like watching.
I really tried to get comfortable with the notion of shooting digital on 'Foxcatcher' and just couldn't. I shot many tests and experimented with all sorts of techniques to manipulate it into a place that worked for us, but it just didn't happen.
I would certainly say that films like Time Code and the Loss of Sexual Innocence were far more rewarding to me in terms of being able to move forward as a filmmaker.
The horror genre is important because it promotes experimentation in filmmaking.
I think there's a side of me that's trying to compete with Lucas and Spielberg - I don't usually admit this publicly - because I tend to think that they only go so far, and their view of the world is rather simplistic. What I want to do is take whatever cinema is considered normal or successful at a particular time and play around with it - to use it as a way of luring audiences in.
I'd made these experimental films but I thought the major chore of a filmmaker was to relate to actors.
I made little Super 8 extravaganzas when I was a kid, the first being my own version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' and where I played all the parts except for Juliet.
