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.
My first film was 'Thiranottam.' I cannot discount that film because I got initiated into films with 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.
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.
I really never imagined that I could ever even direct anything, so 'Girls Like Girls' was co-directed.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 didn't have a career; I made films. It's very different.
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.
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.
My victory is when the audience buys a ticket to watch my film. I am extremely thrilled when they give it a thumbs-up.
