But if I have an obsession at all, it is with hands. I love hands and I love lips. I never cast lipless actors.
I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes. And children are best at that. They teach us how to see the world in that sense. They are without artifice; they see it for what it is. I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.
I am an independent film-maker first and foremost. I have always cut my own cloth.
I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards. I always dreamed of the world.
I guess that would be Indian, in a way. We are used to no privacy. We are used to a lot of people in a room, sleeping on mattresses.
I know what it's like to be in one place and dream of another. I also know what it's like to feel that nostalgia is a fairly useless thing because it is stasis.
I like to be unabashed, which is an Indian trait, both emotionally and visually. It's important to have a circus to play with.
I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.
People ask me this, but I've never sought to be on an A-list. I've done my own thing and my own thing has thankfully now brought me an audience.
They say now in America that final cut doesn't mean anything. As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, 'You can have final cut. I'll open your film in Arkansas.'
What is really important to me is a sense of humour and a mischief about life. Life is just too boring otherwise.
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