I never wanted to perform and never proclaimed myself to be a performer.
I just was never into performing. It's just hard work. It's hard work.
It was really good working with Paresh Rawal. I was nervous at first because he is such a big star and I love his performances, but the initial nervousness went away once I got to know him. He is a very simple and hardworking man.
Srideviji is a powerhouse performer. She has been my favourite actor since my college days and to share screen space with her is a dream come true for me.
If I give five flops, I won't get a job. You have to perform at the box office when you are at the top. No one is running a charity here. People are putting huge amounts of money to make movies, and they want the films to be successful. They have invested money in you, so it is your duty to make sure the film does well.
I think casting is everything. You get a great cast and - certainly, as happens in 'The Hour' - so many of those performances on the page were transformed by those actors who took those parts and made it into something completely different.
I wrote a play for Miu Miu called 'The Moment Is the Present, That's Why It's Called a Gift.' Instead of doing a catwalk show, all the actors wore the clothes and performed a 20-minute play.
I had no intention of becoming a performer, and yet under miraculous circumstances I was brought into the music industry fold. If divine powers hadn't intervened, I'd still be living in China working in some area of Sino-American comparative law.
Work is that which you dislike doing but perform for the sake of external rewards. At school, this takes the form of grades. In society, it means money, status, privilege.
When you're on tour, you really don't get to hang out with and spend the holidays with your family and friends. And there isn't usually much of a break in between performance dates.
