I've been really lucky that I've kind of gotten to flow from project to project, because I find it's very important that when you're on a project, you are so invested in it.
If I read the right script, if that script needs $5 million, if that script needs $50 million, I don't care. If I read a project that's beautiful, that I really want to make, whatever it needs, it needs.
I work anywhere between three and 10 years on a project, depending on the size. My lifetime is finite. Therefore, I have to look carefully at how many projects I want to put into my lifetime.
I've shot a lot of pilots that have never seen the light of day, jobs that have fallen apart or gotten canceled, so I'm really weary about what contracts I sign and where I swear my loyalty to.
To be very honest, I worked harder on 'Humpty...' I did many workshops. I never did workshops in 'Main Tera Hero.'
I would rather do a project that I've invested so much time to, rather than try to get a part on another show.
There are things you do for the fun of doing them or to work or to hang with certain people. But the projects that I've invested myself in and cared about most deeply have absolutely been activated by a desire to chase something that I relate to, or that I see as having the potential to speak to someone else directly.
I really have to feel that I could make a difference in the movie, or I shouldn't be doing it.
With independent film, as an actor, you have more involvement - it's very much more connected. It's not just like I'm showing up and there's another actor on the call sheet; you're very attached to it.
The script is the most important thing for me. I'm advised that other things are important too, and they are. The director that you'll be working with is hugely important, and the cast that are with you is really important as well. But, for me, the thing that gets my heart excited and really makes me invested in something or not is just the quality of the script.
On lower budget things you're still working collaboratively, but the investment and your level of creative importance is higher on something like this.
