I signed 'Aurangzeb' because I loved the story. I thought it was an untold tale. For whatever reason, the audience did not like the film. Fair enough, but I still enjoyed the process.
I would love to return to China one day to make films. I've been away for too long, so I'll need to spend some time back home before I can come up with an idea.
We have a wonderful film lined up early next year called 'Desi Magic.' It showcases me in a double role for the first time. This movie has offered me the most challenging role of my career so far. It's weird I chose to do my toughest film with my own production house.
I discover what my film is by embarking on the journey of making it.
In my early days, I didn't know what a good film or a bad film was, and I was trying to make some money. As it happens I was lucky. I made some good films.
The privilege I've had over 15 movies over a very long time has been to make movies that were ambitious or grown-up, complex, that had themes in them that were sometimes political, sometimes challenging, to make these movies on a scale.
Once I've finished a film I just want to get on and make another one.
I'd come into filmmaking as a painter so, for me, making 'Good Will Hunting' was experimental because I didn't know how to do it.
Working with Rajamouli and Karan is home ground for me now, having worked with them for such a long time.
'The Quiet Ones' was my first film, let alone my first horror film, and I had so much fun. I had such a laugh, every single day. I look like such a feral child in it.
My first film was 'Thiranottam.' I cannot discount that film because I got initiated into films with it.
I really never imagined that I could ever even direct anything, so 'Girls Like Girls' was co-directed.
I've never looked at film-making as a career. I've looked on film-making as an adventure. When you come down the mountain, you get ready to climb again.
My early films look terrible! I didn't know what I was doing. I learned when I was doing it. I never went to film school.
I became passionate about filmmaking. The thrill to make something out of nothing and to go out there to see whether it will work or not attracted me.
I want my films to do the talking. I feel if people have to understand me better, I should do more good films. I just want them to know me through my films.
What I do like is hiking. And that's what filmmaking is. It's a hike. It's challenging and exhausting, and you don't know what the terrain is going to be or necessarily even which direction you're going in... but it sure is beautiful.
Film is always a fight because you're the person, as the director, with a clear picture in your head of what you think is really exciting, and you're just trying to convince a bunch of other people to buy into that.
I decided to be a filmmaker between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse. Before I left for the summer of 1977, my advisor told me I really had to declare a major when I came back, because I'd used all my electives in my first two years. I went back to New York and I couldn't find a job. There were none to be had. And that previous Christmas someone gave me a Super-8 camera, so I just started to shoot stuff.
I think everything that you do, you're learning. I mean, every movie that you make is like a film school; that's one of the things that I enjoy about filmmaking.
When I was starting out, when I put aside my career as an economist. I looked at every book, went to every show, did my first stories, developed my first films. A fabulous time.
You have a soft spot in your heart for each movie, and you're doing certain things. You're learning as you're going, as a director, and each movie is its own entity.
I had a tough time 12 years ago getting 'Driving Miss Daisy' off the ground. Today, it would be impossible.
I live, therefore I make films. I make film, therefore I live. Life. Movement. I make home movies, therefore I live. I live, therefore I make home movies.
I think when you're young and have that first burst of energy and make five or six pictures in a row that tell the stories of all the things in life you want to say... well, maybe those are the films that should have won me the Oscar.
