While my mother wanted me to be a musician, I wanted to become an electronic engineer.
I was famous from the age of 13, and after a while you become immune to it - in a good way. You look at positives and what you can do with it.
The demand in India is to have a hit, which becomes a promotion for the movie and makes people come to the theater. You have five songs and different promotions based on those. But when I do Western films, the need for originality is greater. Then I become very conscious about the writing.
The more I compose, the more I know that I don't know it all. I think it's a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you've already done. I try to make sure that I don't repeat my music.
If there is no criticism, you become lazy. But it should be constructive, and it should be the truth. If it's biased and there's no truth in it, then I don't care about it. If it's true, it helps me grow.
I always say I write my own novels and the characters don't take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, 'What is he or she like,' and they slowly come together and they become the person they are.
The important thing is to do what you most love in the best way. If you love literature, you could be a great writer and perhaps one day become a Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature.
Sometimes you become the person people try to pin you into a corner to be, which is not really fair.
Anyone who's speaking up about anything becomes a target.
You got to become a student of the game. You got to learn the game before you can go out there and play fast.
