I can't describe how I make a film. It's organic.
We should protest to ban NEET altogether.
AJ' is a very special movie to me. I have been watching Dinesh and Rajkumar from their initial days, and have witnessed their evolution. The film talks about the bond shared between a father and a son who wants to fulfil his father's dreams. It's a cross between a comedy of errors and a political satire.
I do films for the common man and identify myself one among them.
I can't write about someone who is unlike me in all senses-physically, emotionally and socially.
If a film can't excite me and teach me something about life, then it is not worth pursuing.
The budget of 'Vada Chennai' is nearly Rs 60 crores.
I've always said that the more ethnic you become, the more international your film becomes.
We all have to consciously make efforts to identify our roots and nurture them.
My mentor is Balu Mahendra.
The academy which boasts of 6,000 to 8,000 voting members are most likely to get swayed by the national mood in the US. There is a point person for every movie at the Oscars, who is supposed to promote the film and is trusted by the panel. By keeping all these in mind, Tamil cinema making its way to the final list is quite ambitious.
Once, a man at the customs duty check at the Delhi Airport asked me a question in Hindi, and I told him that I didn't speak the language. He got angry and said, 'How could you not speak in Hindi? Hindi is our mother tongue.' I told him that it wasn't my mother tongue. He got furious, and made me wait for over 45 minutes.
Vada Chennai' is a proper mainstream film, told in a sensible way.
Vada Chennai 2' needs a big budget.
When you're a filmmaker or a scriptwriter, you face a lot of challenges while making a film. And when you produce it, you have to put in an extra effort.
Whatever film it is, the geography has to be right. If I cannot establish it, I'll get lost. I wouldn't even understand it in the first place! I hence visit a place and decide what can be conveyed from where; how that can be incorporated in the story.
I don't believe in one slow panning-shot to show a place. It should unfurl in the story itself.
Dhanush paid my salary in 2015 when I needed it to make 'Visaaranai.'
When we belong to a community and learn things that are no way related to our society, we live as unwanted entities in that society.
India is a conglomeration of different states with various languages, tradition, and culture for each.
