Rajiv Menon Quotes

"I like to shoot feature films because it's about capturing emotions... words like guilt, hurt, betrayal."

"Minsara Kanavu' was a hit in the South, but not in the North."

"I have a brother and we lost our father when I was 15. And that was a big emotional upheaval in my life."

"I am very much open to doing cinematography for any talented filmmaker, if the script is good."

"Ashok Mehta did not go to any institute. He did not carry the baggage of formal education."

"Ashok Mehta was the man who brought contrast and lighting back to mainstream Hindi film cinematography."

"Three years at the institute had not taught me as much as two weeks on the sets of 'Susman.'"

"When in school, I was interested in many things other than studies."

"I used to be a reasonably good student."

"I love telling stories. But I believe that nobody could teach you to direct a movie."

"I think directing a film is like a woman going through labour. After she goes through the labour pain and delivers her first baby, she says she will not going to have another baby. Then, when she sees the child growing up, she decides to have one more child!"

"I don't have any romantic notions about villages."

"You no more have to come to the city and access a laboratory to make a film. If you have a DSLR and a reasonably powerful laptop, you could be making films anywhere."

"Film music is always given a step-motherly treatment though it is the most popular form of music."

"In Berkley, they have academic studies on all genres of music including rock and jazz, but in India, we don't have serious academic research and studies on film music; it is such an interesting area of study."

"For example, Taj Mahal is the first thing which comes to the minds of many foreigners who visit India, and how Eiffel Tower in Paris, but there is lot more to every country."

"Good acting is confused with good dialogue delivery. Acting is about all about performance, and the way we interpret and understand the character that we bring alive onscreen."

"I make my living by shooting ad-films, and, in fact, that's how I began my career."

"Films take us into an entirely different world, and that's why we must ensure that our long shots do justice."

"Filmmaking is a language where you empathise with human situations. Unless you have empathy for characters, you shouldn't be a filmmaker."

"Cinema has to move people."

"Music is one field where your caste and religion is not important. People accept you so long as you can move them. It is a medium that allows you to fly beyond your caste."

"My films are musically inclined."

"I like fractured characters with human follies."

"I can't write about NRI romances."

"I was witness to a beautiful relationship between cricketer Anil Kumble and a boy suffering from muscular dystrophy. Moved, I wrote 'Spin' - a small film about a cricketer and a spastic boy. But I couldn't find backing."

"I do what I feel like doing."

"You know, writing isn't easy. It's tedious. Ideas have a gestation period, and after a while, it becomes difficult."

"Everyone thinks I am rich, I have a plush office, I make advertisements and travel - but only I know the kinds of problems I face."

"I think I have underperformed as a filmmaker."