When I agreed to play Ravana, I only had one condition that I get to modify the dialogues. One has to maintain the purity of the text, but the dramatization and the emotion behind it can be toyed with.
If you take 'Agni Natchathiram,' it is about two half-brothers and their emotions and those are genuine, which can be made into a very hard-hitting film just that it can be presented in an entertaining fashion. Similarly with 'OK Kanmani,' it is a genuine film; it is not a flippant film just for commercial purposes.
One of the key emotions a lot of people seem to be feeling is disillusionment, and what I try to do as a lyricist is touch on these emotions.
I'm interested in taking raw human emotions and then isolating them without any narrative structure. In order to achieve this, I try to break out of the narrative conventions that you'd see in a typical feature film.
I got interested in the emotions after studying patients who had lost the ability to emote and feel under certain circumstances. Many of those patients also had major impairments in their ability to make decisions.
You become like a vampire when you're pregnant: your senses are so sensitive, and your emotions are so heightened - that helps with performance because you really feel things.
In general, in more collectivist cultures, we see that in group settings, people dampen their emotions but are very expressive when they are at home alone. In more individualistic cultures, such as North America and Europe, it's the opposite - people are more expressive in group settings than when they are by themselves.
I get inspired by the sounds that evoke an emotion from me. That's what I am drawn to; that's what turns me on.
I like emotions, but I really don't like sentimentality, and I don't like when things break their spell.
The relationship between stars and their fans is always ambivalent and often highly charged with contradictory and ambivalent emotions, of which the most powerful is need.
I was really excited when films like 'Kaala Paani,' 'Maachis,' 'Chandni Bar' and others came my way. The sheer fact that I would get to portray various emotions was thrilling.
Social etiquette dictates that when in mixed company, one should avoid discussing politics and religion. As someone who is quite active on various social portals, I can attest to the visceral emotions that are triggered when these topics are broached!
Acting is about expressing emotions, which varies from one person to other. If I were to force my co-stars to act the way I want, then I'll be seeing myself in the output, not them.