I found that direction is the most enjoyable part in filmmaking. The easiest and most comfortable is acting and the loneliest and toughest is writing.
Anoop Menon
It was not easy to get rid of that 'tv actor' label.
In all my screenplays, I have been exploring various aspects of femininity.
I never see myself in a script. For instance, I tried to cast others for 'Beautiful', which didn't work out and I ended up doing it.
I don't like violence, in reel or real life. I prefer the quiet, beautiful genre of movies where everything is rosy and pleasant. I stay away from extreme sadness in my scripts and, somehow, I can't make movies for kids.
I have always been fascinated by chefs and I make it a point to meet them at all the hotels I visit.
I had to continuously do films to shrug off the mini-screen image and it was a struggle. Initially, I was taken off from many films due to this and I dealt with it by signing every other film I got, even compromising on the quality.
I revere my serials. But the reality, at the same time, is that it is difficult to get a break in films. I have been unceremoniously ousted from 20-25 films because I am a serial actor.
Among my friends, I am still that guy who is just out of college and nobody treats me like a geek.
The Dolphins' is my tribute to all those selfless mothers and women that I have ever come across, including my own mother, Indira. Some 75 per cent of mothers that I have seen are like that, all of them worthy of emulation.
I just write by instinct and my screenplays are often the effort of a year-long penance on a subject.
I have a fondness for words. On that note, I don't consider my lyrics to be all that great. I like to call myself a supplier of words rather than a lyricist.
As an actor, there is so little freedom to choose. You can keep waiting for aeons to get the right role. It may never come! It is better to keep working and then you get more work.
I used to read voraciously while in school and cinema was always a fascination. Law was the safe backup plan.
I don't know whether I am able to come to terms with the fact that I am a director now as all this happened by chance.
If you have a perfect script, the right actors and technicians, and a good producer, direction is the most enjoyable profession in the world.
So, when I write, I am the last choice as an actor.
I am probably the only actor who came from television serials to films and was able to work in films this long. Of the 75-odd films I've done, in around 40 of them, I've been the hero.
I like to be easy-going but if someone wants me to be tough, I can put on that image as per the situation demands.
I am just an actor and we actors are a lucky lot because we get to play many lives in one life.
I love experimenting, playing characters that are not even remotely connected to my personality.
Even if you only play a cameo in a film, it becomes a part of you and you get butterflies in your stomach on release day.
I am comfortably ensconced in my position as an actor.
