I'm not saying that every song has to be an all-time hit or the greatest ever music. That's not what you should set out to do. But you have to find out what will work best for a particular story or theme or backdrop, and discuss how not to make it a cliche or fall into such traps.

Mani Ratnam

Characters are not created on paper or laptop alone.

Art is something in which you are never an expert at any point of time. It's something you hone all the time and something which is elusive all the time.

Mani Ratnam

Time Art You

The thing is that when you make a film, it is such an intense experience. It's like being married.

Mani Ratnam

Experience You Thing

I am a big fan of sleek action films.

Mani Ratnam

T Ms Lee

The journey of filmmaking is so amazing. You start off with great confidence, and develop insecurity at the time of release. When you are ready with the finished product, you are constantly wondering if you have been honest to the story you started out with, if you got what you wanted. One is too close to the project by then to be objective.

Mani Ratnam

Time Great Art

In a film like 'Kannathil Muthamittal,' I can't have a Rajnikanth or a Kamal Haasan. If you have a star, the expectation of the film is different. So, you cast according to the subject of the film. Some films are best done with stars because it gives you a base on which if you can get the correct performance, you can reach higher.

Mani Ratnam

You Wit Which

I don't watch my old films like 'Roja,' 'Dil Se' because I only see mistakes. I see five minutes of the film and I am scared I will start finding mistakes in them.

Mani Ratnam

Car Art Will

That's the beauty of Mumbai. While some parts have grown rapidly, there are places like Churchgate that have retained their character.

Mani Ratnam

Art While T

I used to wonder how anyone could treat a fellow human as God. I never understood why they would do this.

Mani Ratnam

God Would Wonder

Seeing any film after I have made it is difficult.

Mani Ratnam

T Seeing See

I enjoy making all kinds of films. I love action films, war films, period films, adventure films.

Mani Ratnam

War Love Venture

Whatever film you do, even if it's a children's film, you do with the same amount of sincerity.

Mani Ratnam

You Wit Whatever

When I am making a film, it's very instinctive, it's not preset.

Mani Ratnam

Very Tin T

What is film-making about if not romance?

Mani Ratnam

T Romance Roman

I am more comfortable with Tamil than Hindi.

Mani Ratnam

Wit Than Table

Can I call up any actor in Mumbai? I can, and they can say wrong number and hang up!

Mani Ratnam

Wrong Up T

Sometimes in a large family, you get taken to a movie and there just isn't enough space or not enough tickets and you get left out. Those are the movies you remember because you never got to see them!

Mani Ratnam

Time Space Movies

Every time you make a film, you want to do it in a genre that is different from your previous film, so that there is something fresh about it.

Mani Ratnam

Time Your You

A film is between you and the audience. The distributors are the only people in between us. It is a straight equation.

Mani Ratnam

You Us T

Any good film you see gives you enough motivation and adrenaline rush to produce good content, while a bad film can get you so angry that you produce even better content.

Mani Ratnam

Good You While

I don't know why my leading men have grey shades. Maybe I am trying to explore that side of me through them.

Mani Ratnam

I'm not saying that every song has to be an all-time hit or the greatest ever music. That's not what you should set out to do. But you have to find out what will work best for a particular story or theme or backdrop, and discuss how not to make it a cliche or fall into such traps.

Mani Ratnam

Format is just the language. Content is the only thing that is important. Form is like handwriting. Whether you write in a scribble or clean handwriting or type it, the content remains the same. You want to write in clean hand, in a kind of a clear format only because it is aesthetically pleasing. I can scribble, that's also fine.

Mani Ratnam

A written word gets preserved in so many forms. But movies which comprise of both audio and visuals have to be done with care and a lot more details.

Mani Ratnam

If you look at any film fest, the setting gives it colour. Be it Goa, Cannes or even Berlin in the winter, the setting makes these festivals special and gives it a definition.

Mani Ratnam

It doesn't matter which genre you're working in, you try to find an honest relationship within that space, and say if it's the romance genre, within that you have to find a story and characters that resonate with an audience.

Mani Ratnam

When you break new grounds and try to do something different, it's always a high. I remember the first time we did a whole song in slow motion with lipsync for 'Geetanjali.' It was not prevalent at that time. We just had a method and we tried to do that. We weren't sure whether it was going to work, but that is the kind of risk you take.

Mani Ratnam

I wish I had gone to a film school.

Mani Ratnam

I don't have to stand back as an outsider to look at society.

Mani Ratnam

Education is so important.

Mani Ratnam

With each film, you are still trying to get the length and measure right. And failure is all about others' perception of you. When you have one success, they think you know it all. But if you fail, they think they know it all.

Mani Ratnam

I work with actors who fit the bill. I have worked with Abhishek in 'Yuva,' 'Guru' and 'Raavan' because he was the perfect choice.

Mani Ratnam

What I feel is great acting might be rubbish for another filmmaker. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It all boils down to the trust between an actor and a director.

Mani Ratnam

Actors are the most important. Performance is what matters. Nothing matters more than the actors; they have to perform. No one else can give life to the characters. Audiences must believe the characters as real and the moments as real.

Mani Ratnam

Movie criticism is very subjective and everyone has the right to voice their opinion. You go to a movie and decide whether you like it or not.

Mani Ratnam

I watch films, so I know what it is to be there in a theatre as the audience. So I always want to communicate with them when I make films, but that is not the only thing. I also want to say something which I feel deeply, and which I feel I can connect with the rest of the audience.

Mani Ratnam

When it comes to casting for movies, it is a priority that you cast right. The guiding principle must be what is right for the movie, that is the basis you cast someone, not because so-and-so is a friend.

Mani Ratnam

It is usually the setting that decides whether a movie can be made in two languages. If the subject is rooted up North, then I make it in Hindi. But if the subject is common, then I am open to making the movie in multiple languages.

Mani Ratnam

Censorship should never go. But we can always give a little more space to the director.

Mani Ratnam

When I did my first film, I didn't have formal training; I didn't work under any director. I really didn't know how to make a film.

Mani Ratnam

I grew up on the commercial film format. I have grown up all my life watching films and they have all been mainstream commercial cinema.

Mani Ratnam

I liked Guru Dutt, the way he used songs and the way he shot songs. He was a class apart.

Mani Ratnam

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city.

Mani Ratnam

Bilingual films come with a certain inbuilt practical problem with respect to the setting of the story and the dialect.

Mani Ratnam

Roja,' 'Bombay' and 'Dil Se' weren't planned as political films. It was a phase India was going through and these things affected me and found their way into my work.

Mani Ratnam

A song is a burden that you carry happily.

Mani Ratnam

Let me be very frank. I make films keeping within the mainstream and my cinema is popular cinema. I love it this way.

Mani Ratnam

I am glad that we can make bold films, different films within the commercial market and still do well.

Mani Ratnam

Language, I think, has nothing to do with film-making. It is how you make your point and whether you exploit the visual medium maintaining a certain standard that does the trick.

Mani Ratnam

Unfortunately scripts don't chase me. I chase them. I struggle, battle, discard, pick it back, struggle further, plead with it, curse it, cajole and try to be clever. But it is invariably the script that rules.

Mani Ratnam