Basically, I have always wanted to have an art-house cinema. A cinema where we can show films that are not necessarily the current offerings on circuit and films that are not commercial.
I was this classic film school snob who thought mainstream cinema was synonymous with bad cinema.
I don't even watch many huge films. I don't go to the cinema every weekend. I watch selective cinema and want to make my kind of films.
I think when you make something that is non-mainstream and people don't have automatic way of consuming, like you don't have a big star, or a hit song or marketing money then you need to find some way to make audience aware of your film.
When I went to Jamia, I thought I wanted to be a cinematographer or photographer because I liked telling stories in pictures, but my teachers explained that if you want to tell your own stories then that is what a director does.
I have always wanted to have a cultural centre where people can sort of have a community of artists and like-minded people sharing their work.
I don't believe in women-centric films, but I certainly believe that we should create films that have more challenging roles for women and I definitely will have that in all my films.
I don't judge cinema on its box-office success.
I was born in Bangalore but grew up in Kolkata and I read, write and speak Bengali.
We were quite a middle class family, but we had access to all the good things in life, be it books or access to a club. I was outgoing and did a lot of elocution, singing and theatre.
After my 12th, my parents moved to Bangalore while I moved to Mumbai to study Economics at Sophia College. Much unlike other girls who managed to evade the curfew and organised the slips to get out of college, we would attend college and were interested in academics.
Though I adored Delhi, Mumbai was in my veins and I felt connected to this city and had to come back.
It took me a good two-and-a-half to three years to write 'Dhobi Ghat' and more importantly be satisfied with it.
Dhobi Ghat' is the only script I actually completed and that I was convinced about wanting to direct.
Working as an AD and producer prepares you in the sense that you know what you have to do to make a film. But nothing prepares you for your first film.
I had a very late introduction to films. We didn't watch a lot of films while growing up in Kolkata.
Actually I don't watch a lot of films but when I do, I like experimental, avant garde, European and world cinema. That is the language of cinema I am drawn towards. I don't watch much Hollywood or Bollywood.
We want box office success, critical acclaim, awards and everything else. But I think when the audience likes a film, that appreciation is far more fulfilling, far more satisfying than any award.
I go to watch the so-called mainstream films for different reasons. I certainly like those films if they are giving me something new to look out for.
I watch certain kinds of masala films.
