When I did my first film, I didn't have formal training; I didn't work under any director. I really didn't know how to make a film.

I grew up on the commercial film format. I have grown up all my life watching films and they have all been mainstream commercial cinema.

I liked Guru Dutt, the way he used songs and the way he shot songs. He was a class apart.

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city.

Bilingual films come with a certain inbuilt practical problem with respect to the setting of the story and the dialect.

Roja,' 'Bombay' and 'Dil Se' weren't planned as political films. It was a phase India was going through and these things affected me and found their way into my work.

A song is a burden that you carry happily.

Let me be very frank. I make films keeping within the mainstream and my cinema is popular cinema. I love it this way.

I am glad that we can make bold films, different films within the commercial market and still do well.

Language, I think, has nothing to do with film-making. It is how you make your point and whether you exploit the visual medium maintaining a certain standard that does the trick.

Unfortunately scripts don't chase me. I chase them. I struggle, battle, discard, pick it back, struggle further, plead with it, curse it, cajole and try to be clever. But it is invariably the script that rules.

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.