There's no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.

Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.

You never know how much time you have left.

Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out.

Bad choices make good stories.

Film fests are an opportunity to see different kinds of films that you usually don't get to watch. When I'm part of a jury, then I get to judge films, but otherwise I attend festivals to watch two or three films a day and network with a gathering of cinema lovers from all over.

Every film you see at a festival teaches you something.

The fact that technology has developed so much gives you the liberty to tell the stories, which were difficult to say earlier. It allows you to tell it more convincingly, more elaborately and more beautifully.

For a filmmaker, whether the film is liked, understood or appreciated counts as much as the moolah.

Within the mainstream cinema, I feel you can experiment and make sensible films. It's possible to tell a story with characters and emotions which are real, genuine, and which need not be over the top.

When Kamal Haasan did 'Nayakan,' he had done a few roles that had him aged and demanded a lot of commitment from. He was already a veteran and a master.

I always look for genuineness. If I feel I can connect with the audience, I will try to develop it. For example, the genesis of 'Kannathil Muthamittal' was an article published in a magazine.

I have only one simple ambition when I make a film. That it should be the best I have made so far. With 'Kadal' it was no different.

When I did my first film, I had a fair idea of what I liked and what I didn't while watching an actor in front of the camera. After I finished the film, I thought I had exhausted everything I knew. As I moved from one story, setting and character to another, I discovered something new.

The idea of 'Roja' was with me for seven years before I made it.

Sometimes casting falls in place easily and sometimes it takes a while. Fifty per cent of my job is done when I get the right actors.

As a filmmaker, every tool you get to tell the scene better is important.

My job as a director is to communicate, and I want to communicate to all.

Films will break barriers - and good films will travel all over India.

As the soul of the film it has to work for you otherwise you don't take it up at all. It takes two years of your life, you better be interested in it. When you know it's something you can do well, that's when you take it up.

If you take 'Agni Natchathiram,' it is about two half-brothers and their emotions and those are genuine, which can be made into a very hard-hitting film just that it can be presented in an entertaining fashion. Similarly with 'OK Kanmani,' it is a genuine film; it is not a flippant film just for commercial purposes.

I want to make a film that can reach as many as possible so I want to talk in a language which I can easily communicate with.

I am not worried about people's expectations. I just want to get the film right.

Before the release of any film, I feel like a beginner.