Indian cinema will continue to grow, I am very sure.

Sometimes, I think filmmakers grab too much from real life.

My films are as much for the people as they are for me. The reception affects me, but doesn't change me as a person. That's important.

Whenever I am abroad, I spend hours and hours at video stores. I look for classics from filmmakers from all over the world.

When I made my first film, I was arrogant and over-confident.

If you ask a filmmaker to analyse his own film, it would take three or four years to do that, honestly. Because when you make a film, you have to be convinced about it. You are married to that film for a year.

We always work for money but when you do something for The Banyan, you feel so good.

Most ideas remain inside you for a while. You tell somebody when there is a spark or a thought, and leave it at that. You come back later, write down a few lines. I makes note in my mind on whether it can be made into a film or not.

Certain subjects are best done with stars. Certain subjects like 'Alai Payuthe' are done with non-stars. In such films, stars are a burden.

Filmmaking is not a one man show. It is not like I'm thinking something and they are expressing it. I try to pull the actor in and together we try to get the expression. It is not my thinking alone, it is our thinking. The actor also becomes a part of the thought process.

Once the film is released, once my job is over, I can't see the film again.

When your principal artists deliver convincing performances, the film's quality is elevated.

Even in a conservative society like Chennai, youngsters don't feel bound by conventions anymore.

I don't believe in giving advice.

To catch a piece of life on camera and make it come alive, add layers to it and deliver a product that is wholesome is really exciting to me.

I am not against songs in films. We come from an oral tradition of storytelling. I have grown up listening to epics in oral rendition and oral rendition always had music.

Kamal Haasan is a huge talent.

Rahman is very very director friendly. He is ever ready to go whichever the director wants, the story wants, depending on the kind of movie or the music you want, and within that he finds his niche. It is a constantly complementary process. At the end of the day he is not pleasing you, he has to please himself.

What you write sets the visual style for the film. But you have to compromise your style in your first few films before people let you do what you want to do.

I did my first film in Kannada.

There are filmmakers who get lucky with the first film itself, and then there are some of us who have to face difficulties.

When you listen to music, you listen to music. You like it very much or not.

I like songs. It's a weakness that I have.

I don't believe that to be mainstream you have to be foolish. I don't think you have to be a buffoon to sell. I think you can be logical, aesthetic and still work within the mainstream format.

Writing is nagging, fascinating, troublesome and exciting.

Westerners are open to Indian films.

Each success gives me the adrenaline to move to another film.

A director is a very selfish person. For him, his film is like his baby.

At the end of the day, all I want is that my films should do well.

You can't say there is only one way of doing things, the police way of ensuring law and order.

In school I was sidelined by Tamil language teachers. But in the film industry, I got interested in Tamil poetry after reading and working with the Vairamuthu.

Before the release of any film, I feel like a beginner.

I am not worried about people's expectations. I just want to get the film right.

I want to make a film that can reach as many as possible so I want to talk in a language which I can easily communicate with.

If you take 'Agni Natchathiram,' it is about two half-brothers and their emotions and those are genuine, which can be made into a very hard-hitting film just that it can be presented in an entertaining fashion. Similarly with 'OK Kanmani,' it is a genuine film; it is not a flippant film just for commercial purposes.

As the soul of the film it has to work for you otherwise you don't take it up at all. It takes two years of your life, you better be interested in it. When you know it's something you can do well, that's when you take it up.

Films will break barriers - and good films will travel all over India.

My job as a director is to communicate, and I want to communicate to all.

As a filmmaker, every tool you get to tell the scene better is important.

Sometimes casting falls in place easily and sometimes it takes a while. Fifty per cent of my job is done when I get the right actors.

The idea of 'Roja' was with me for seven years before I made it.

When I did my first film, I had a fair idea of what I liked and what I didn't while watching an actor in front of the camera. After I finished the film, I thought I had exhausted everything I knew. As I moved from one story, setting and character to another, I discovered something new.

I have only one simple ambition when I make a film. That it should be the best I have made so far. With 'Kadal' it was no different.

I always look for genuineness. If I feel I can connect with the audience, I will try to develop it. For example, the genesis of 'Kannathil Muthamittal' was an article published in a magazine.

When Kamal Haasan did 'Nayakan,' he had done a few roles that had him aged and demanded a lot of commitment from. He was already a veteran and a master.

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.

For a filmmaker, whether the film is liked, understood or appreciated counts as much as the moolah.

The fact that technology has developed so much gives you the liberty to tell the stories, which were difficult to say earlier. It allows you to tell it more convincingly, more elaborately and more beautifully.

Every film you see at a festival teaches you something.

Film fests are an opportunity to see different kinds of films that you usually don't get to watch. When I'm part of a jury, then I get to judge films, but otherwise I attend festivals to watch two or three films a day and network with a gathering of cinema lovers from all over.