I would like to give one message: Live life light with a smile.
Suhasini Maniratnam
I don't believe in God, in prayer, in going to temples begging God to give me and my family happiness. I am not asking everyone to be an atheist, but good thoughts are not spent in a temple.
I took up special yoga and a diet from Sreenath Vishnu. And amazingly, I lost 5.5 kgs in 20 days and my husband Mani shed six kilos in a month.
'Hasini Pesum Padam' was about reviewing Tamil movies that released every week. I felt it is more of an international platform and hence used trendy trousers and different kinds of tops.
Though I read and speak Malayalam, Malayalis won't accept outsiders speaking their language.
In fact my first film ran for about 400 days. It all depends on hype, marketing and publicity, which are actually more expensive than the actual film.
For people to understand, you can't speak 'cinema.' Cinema doesn't have alphabets, so you have to go to the local language. Even in England, if they make a movie in London they have to make it in the Cockney accent, they can't make a film with the English spoken in the BBC. So cinema has to be realistic to the area that it is set in.
On the first day of my shoot for 'School Master,' I was feeling a little uneasy because I had to travel a lot. I was feeling a little sleepy too. After the completion of each shot, I would go for a small nap.
I have been acting for more than 25 years and have worked in all the four Southern languages. But it is in the Kannada films that I got huge recognition and variety of roles.
Though the first day of college was scary, I gradually adjusted to the environment and started enjoying myself with friends, lecturers, sports, and college day functions.
Films are a fantastic medium and the huge impact they have cannot be denied.
I don't think too seriously about anything, neither does my husband and my son. When we are home, we are constantly laughing over some trivial matters.
Throughout school I studied in Tamil medium schools but it was only when I got to college that I realized that not learning English was a great disadvantage as I didn't understand even the simplest of sentences.
Technology has definitely changed a lot, and it has made the medium of cinema very accessible for aspirants.
In Queen Mary's, which was an all-girls' college, I learned discipline, hard work and to be competitive. But at Madras Film Institute, I learned about the world, being free and knowledgeable, and thinking beyond oneself.
College education teaches you humility.
It is difficult to accept failure when you are a student. It is also difficult to succeed because everyone is so competitive!
When I see poverty around, it churns my heart.
I hate myself seconds after I've gotten angry but it's too late by then. I start defending my actions after that. It's shameful.
My parents and their well-being comes before my work.
My love is music... I do not give too much importance to love and romance.
Cinema by itself is a language.
The more women grow economically, there will be more allegations against them. If they don't grow, if they are quiet, nobody is going to find fault with them.
Every language will have different nuances. But language cannot be the basis for discrimination or exclusion.
I think if an actor is not able to pronounce their own dialogues, no matter what language, you are not an actor.
The economic freedom has come to a lot of us who are lucky, but many women are still beaten up by husbands, even when they are breadwinners.
I don't really like event managing - I don't even manage my house.
I do things normal event managers cannot do, thanks to my years in the film industry.
Most people don't even know that I have another side to me. They only know me as an actor. But I keep doing different kinds of things.
An actor is a thinking person.
Actors should be writers. While a writer puts the story on paper, an actor puts it on screen.
Hasn't everyone written a leave letter while at school? Or sent a text message? There is a writer in all of us.
There are few teachers from the film industry to guide newcomers. One can see a gap between the film industry and those teaching at film schools.
When I am at home, I am there and when I'm shooting or doing any other thing, I concentrate on that.
I don't believe in multitasking. I rather believe in doing one thing at a time.
I don't get bored of life. I always find things that excite me.
I don't think women are being sidelined or ignored. If they are talented enough, they will get films. But they need to be more ambitious.
I was born in a part of Tamil Nadu notorious for eliminating the girl child. I was the third daughter born to my parents and I have my mother to thank for deciding that I was not an unwanted child.
I am a humble speaker, I speak very well.
Yes, my uncle wanted me to be a cinematographer and he was disappointed when I gave up that dream to become an actress.
After 40, women forget they are women. There's a certain liberation and we get to know ourselves.
My husband won't remake films and won't allow anyone to remake his films. It's like making your child study like your neighbour's child.
Women should be able to come out and narrate stories from their point of view.
We women want to take the easy way out. I appreciate men because they take risks.
The stories are being written by men, and it's men who are directing it. As long as that continues, you won't be seeing much change in the way women are portrayed in cinema.
Men directors somehow think it's great to show heroes all unkempt and ungroomed. You'd be able to smell the hero's aftershave lotion if a woman directed him.
Bengalureans have a heart of gold.
You need to understand the meaning of the dialogue to be able to convey it right. You need to know it to understand the nuances of the scene.
All art cinema is not great; some of the films can put you to sleep.
Raja Ravi Varma was one of the few Indians who not only understood women but also represented them exquisitely in a single dimension within four frames, infusing each painting with life through the use of color.
