Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Promotions create awareness, but if there is no merit to the film, what will promotions do anyway?
I always maintain that the film industry and film people across the globe are more or less the same.
I should be satisfied first as an actor with my work. I will not do something because everyone is doing it.
Personally, as an artiste, I never do any discrimination. If I am offered a 'Golmaal 4,' I'll run and do it.
I could never understand the herd mentality. I have always fought to do things my way and have stuck to that.
I have worked with good directors, and I consider myself very lucky because I think that it is very important.
You cannot analyse your personality. It is like trying to understand the essential characteristics of a person.
Working with Kal Penn in 'Namesake' was funny at times. What we did was so real. We had fun on and off the sets, too.
I can't be objective about my work, because I am so involved that I can't see it as a product to be judged. I can't see it as an outsider.
I write about different things. Anything that has affected me. Anything that I have liked. Anything that I feel strongly about. Any experience.
I am the last person who has any judgement about any kind of cinema, least of all commercial cinema because I am a product of commercial cinema.
I come from a generation that had no monitors on the sets. You had to go with the director's conviction and be happy with it. I still work like that.
When I was younger, 15 years or 20 years seemed like a really long time. But, as you journey though life, you don't realise where the years disappear.
I do a film because I would love to be a part of it, but I also think from the audience's perspective. Our profession survives because of our audience.
I don't have any special approach for playing dark characters. That's because I never looked at them as dark characters per se. For me, they were real people.
'Meenaxi' was a lesson in liberation. It taught me to be a free spirit and understand the pleasure of my work by being different people, just like Meenaxi is.
My relationship with every film is more or less the same, but the experience is the difference. It comes with the people I am working with, the character I play.
I always wanted to do good work, the best that I was able to, to really discover myself, getting better with each role, and find newer ways to do the same thing.
All over the world, actors and actresses are chosen for their performing skills. Not how they look or what they wear. It is all about how they act, how they emote.
Your chemistry with your co-actors is more important in a comedy. You can't leave it to your performance alone. So many things have to fall into place to make people laugh.
I don't find a reason to be on Twitter or Facebook. This is my temperament, and I can't put myself out 24/7 out there. However, I am not judgmental about others being there.
I was really excited when films like 'Kaala Paani,' 'Maachis,' 'Chandni Bar' and others came my way. The sheer fact that I would get to portray various emotions was thrilling.
There is nothing wrong with commercial cinema if it is made well. In fact, if you ask me, the Hindi film industry has also produced some truly outstanding works over the years.
People should be good, established people; the filmmaking and acting experience should be heartening. So I chose films where I would get a good experience, not just great roles.
I did 'Hawa' to understand what ghosts and the supernatural are all about. I don't believe in them and wondered how I could essay a part in a project I don't necessarily understand.
How can I stop acting? I don't think there is a full stop. Maybe the only time I will stop will be when acting stops fascinating me. I will have to find something that fascinates me more.
I am keen on doing the regular Hindi film, but I want strong, meaningful roles in my repertoire, which I get down South. I can devote equal time and attention to both, so I don't see the clash.
I followed my own self and individuality so much that it automatically made me a game changer or set me apart from others. I did not think it was necessary to do things the way others are doing it.
Why was it important for women to be only nice? Why can't she have dark layers? So when they came to me - films like 'Maqbool' and 'Astitva' - they just grabbed me, and I wanted to be part of them.
I didn't have a set of rules, dos, and don'ts or a reference point on how I would navigate my career. I never planned to be in a certain place in the industry. I was walking my path and doing things my way.
I never saw my career as a journey with a beginning, middle, and end, with high points and low points. It is just a whole, big mass of experience, and I take each experience as it comes. I don't strategise.
What has helped me is my success in commercial cinema. It has given me a platform for others to cast me in their films. If I did not have the commercial success, then I wouldn't be able to do the smaller films.
If I feel the role is not going to demand anything out of me, I don't do it. Either it has to be a terrific role, or the director has to be someone I am dying to work with. Or the costar has to be someone I really look up to.
I had read Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Namesake' and thought it would make a fabulous film, as I could identify with the central character. When Mira Nair announced the film, I wanted to do the role. When it fell into my lap, I was over the moon.
There is hunger to have good experiences with people. There will be roles and all of that. But the package of experience has today become important for me. People should be good, established; the filmmaking and acting experience should become heartening.
I try not to get typecast in any role, any image. I feel I can do justice to every kind of role, so why not make the best of it? See, commercial films alone can get you only so far. If you want to last as an actress, then you have to put in that extra bit of investment by doing off-beat films, too.
There is always something that you will take away from each project. There definitely has to be something that you have said yes to in the first place. In some projects, it's the freedom to express yourself more; in some, it's a bigger sense of camaraderie, and somewhere, it's the money that is great.
I never thought I was doing any great work. I never thought I would last. In the beginning, I was terrible. I never used to speak to people. I used to start crying. I was extra sensitive. I would run away home and feel miserable. I didn't know how to behave then. I was touchy. People interpreted it as arrogance.
