I joined the Madras Christian College but dropped out after three months. Telugu music director Ramesh Naidu asked me to assist him, and I did so for over a year. I did think of rejoining college, but by then, I was discovering the musician in me. I worked with Illaya Raja and Raj Koti and soon shifted to commercials. This led to movie offers.
A. R. Rahman
I have been connected with the Niels Bohr Institute since the completion of my university studies, first as a research fellow and, from 1956, as a professor of physics at the University of Copenhagen. After the death of my father in 1962, I followed him as director of the Institute until 1970.
Aage Bohr
There must be a story within him/her that wants to come out. That's the reason why 'Dil Chahta Hai,' 'Lagaan,' and 'Rang De Basanti' worked so well: Ashutosh, Farhan, and Rakesh had a story inside them. It's very important that the director should have the fire in the belly to tell the story.
Aamir Khan
Essentially, it is the director who is the creative head of a film. The final authority on all decisions lies with the director. That is how it should be. And then other team members can give their creative inputs.
I would love to get great performances from actors as a director, because that's what I'm always looking for, a director that's going to help me go places I've never been before.
Aaron Eckhart
Directors, producers can make you look good or make you look bad.
With the work that I do as a director, I've got dialogue, camera movement, and character blocking to help create a tone to the piece. In photography, those elements are somewhat void so that tone becomes a bit more subtle but still equally important.
Aaron Ruell
I feel as if I've been fairly successful with maintaining a cohesive tone between the work I make as a photographer and as a director.
Being an actor really, really strengthens me as a director. There's just a certain type of understanding that comes from having been there and knowing how much is really being asked of actors that helps me.
When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me. So when David Fincher comes along and wants to direct 'The Social Network,' when Bennett Miller comes along and wants to direct 'Moneyball,' or when Danny Boyle wants to direct 'Jobs'? Hallelujah. I want them directing it.
Aaron Sorkin
I have a lot of respect for people who are great at ad-libbing and for writers and directors who are able to create a scene in which that works. Judd Apatow is fantastic at it. But as an audience member, I like the sound of something that's been written - I like it to sound written.
There are so many elements that make a good film. You need a great director who's driving it.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson
The problem with independent films is that they can be hit or miss. I've seen scripts that have blown me away. But there have to be all the right ingredients in place to make them work: the director, cast, publicity, distribution.
I want to work with great directors. I've picked films based on the script or the character and seen them collapse because the directors were not strong visionaries.
Should Planned Parenthood be defunded, women will still have access to great quality healthcare. Speaking as a former Planned Parenthood director, I know that quality health care is best provided outside of Planned Parenthood.
Abby Johnson
I worked at Planned Parenthood for eight years, rising through the ranks from volunteer escort to clinic counselor to clinic director.
My first March for Life was in 2010, three months after I left my job in the abortion industry as clinic director at a Planned Parenthood in Texas. It was intensely emotional, shocking in many ways, especially the outright love I saw in the faces of people who I once considered enemies.
There's no such thing as a non-final cut director.
Abel Ferrara
The kind of stories I like often comes from debutant directors.
Abhay Deol
I realized that I need to protect my films because the director will move on, the producer will move on too, but as an actor I will be considered a flop if things will not work.
I have always been up for risks, but only because I had full confidence and faith in the vision of my directors.
I agree that at the end of the day, it's a man's world, but when I'm doing a film, I am working with the director, not a man or a woman.
I was pleasantly surprised that south directors started creating roles for me after watching 'Rakta Charitra.'
You can work really hard on your physicality, on your craft, on the films you do. You can choose the best of directors, the best of productions, get the best technicians, you can put your entire body and soul into the making of a film, but at the end of the day, it all depends on the mood of that one audience member that goes into that theater.
Movie-making is serious business. The director and the crew are already under a lot of pressure to give their best to the audience. Therefore, the best part for me as an actor is to act well in the movies and make a jolly atmosphere with the co-stars on the sets.
Casting director was a part-time thing, which later became a full-time job because there was a lack of casting directors in our industry and people were looking for professionals to do it.
Maybe because I am an actor-casting director, I always felt that we need good actors in the industry and we need to bring them at the top.
No, I don't think it is required for casting directors to be actors too. My mentor Gautam Kishanchandani cannot act to save his life!
Then there is Abhimanyu Ray, Honey Trehan, Nandini Srikanth, Shanoo Sharma, we have so many great casting directors who have nothing to do with acting. You just need to have a great eye to understand the character.
I think film and television - particularly film - you are very isolated as a writer. If you're lucky, you have a good relationship with the director. Then you do make that development and come on set and be part of something. But ultimately, your work is kind of done by the time you come on set.
Stage is the place of the playwright: you're guided by great actors and directors, but it's the playwright's word on the page that counts.
My advice to female directors is not to wait until you feel like your ideas have been pre-certified or until you think you've gotten some approval for them. Then it's too late! Follow your gut. That's hard to do, but the only way to be original.
When you hire directors, you're most concerned about whether or not someone from the outside will get the jokes.
When I walked in to read with Edie Falco, it was nice, because I auditioned in New York, and it was very quick. You walk in, there's Edie, the producers, the director, and a camera. I read three scenes, and it was done.
I think when you're a director, it's hard to do something unless you're absolutely over-the-moon in love with it. The audience, they spend 90 minutes with it, but for you, it's anywhere between a year and a half to three years of your life, every day, working on it.
If SoftBank can complete the tender offer it contemplates to buy a large stake in Uber, the company's bizarre governance war will be over for the time being, putting Uber back on par with other normal companies whose boards of directors dont fight publicly with each other.
David O. Russell is probably my favorite filmmaker. He's not only a great director, but he's also a great writer.
All you can really do as director is sort of set a tone.
If you look at 'Avatar,' could you imagine if you did 'Avatar' for 50 million dollars? It would be ridiculous! You would almost be getting laughs from the audience, unless you got a real indie director to do something incredibly stylised.
I had a sort of bad experiences as a playwright early on, when directors were putting in huge concepts that I didn't intend, or they were stylizing something that was compromising the play, so I started to think like, 'Well if I'm going to fight against this, I should learn how to direct.'
I just love working with actors, and I love working with writers, working with designers. I feel that I am just a storyteller, and whether I am wearing the director hat or the playwright hat, it doesn't matter. And the rooms I tend to be in are pretty democratic, and the best idea wins.
A little secret - I'm the child of a shrink. I am; my mom's a shrink, and my father's a lawyer. So believe me, I analyze and negotiate. That is a huge amount of the director's work, especially when you're working with people who - such a variety.
For me, there was never an end game for becoming a director.
In every shoot, between the actor and the director there is manipulation. I'm not saying that negatively. It's healthy.
I think that what 'Oz' did is it spawned a great generation of television production. But people know its place in television and just in great dramas. It's the foundation of my career. Most producers, show runners, directors, and casting directors put me in movies based on my performance in that show.
I feel that I don't know anything, I don't know how to act, but I can surrender myself to a director I respect and love. I feel very lucky to be a part of their visions.
Though all actors do not make good directors, Dhanush is really one of the finest. He knows exactly how to direct an actor to extract the performance the way he wants it. Perhaps that is happening because he is a performer himself.
I must say that Dhanush wears the hat of director and actor pretty seamlessly.
I consider myself as a director's actor, so I'm open to work with filmmakers from across the country and even abroad.
In general, a film's delay is disheartening for actors, but it's harder on the director and the producer who have been on the project for longer than anyone else. While actors move on to other projects, the film's makers don't.
