When I was in film institute, stage plays were compulsory part of our training.
When I first met David Lynch, he was living in the stables of the American Film Institute... He'd work all night and have his crew lock him in during the day, and he'd sleep.
After my schooling, I started theatre. By the time I graduated, I was doing theatre 24x7. Luckily, the FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) acting course started.
Whatever I am today is mostly because of my training at FTII. It taught me to be disciplined as an actor. People accuse us of being lazy and presume that we smoke up and laze about in the campus, which is not true at all. FTII courses are hard work.
After I finished my degree in Mass Communication in Manipal, I enrolled for a cinematography course in Pune Film Institute. That is when Nandini Reddy, the director of 'Ala Modalaindi,' convinced me to act.
Naseer Sir taught me while I was a student at the Film and Television Institute of India. Anything I know about acting is thanks to him.
When I was in the 12th standard itself, I decided to join the Adyar Film Institute and study photography. I specifically chose photography because I see photography as an applied science. There is an artistic element also in it. If you perfect your scientific element, you can attain certain quality.
People claim that no good actors came out of FTII after Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi. What they don't know is that the acting course was closed for 26 years and reopened only in 2004.
