Sriram Raghavan

My women characters should not exist only to play the 'love interest' of a male character.

I am partial to thrillers but if somebody gives me a script like 'King's Speech' to do, I would love to do it too.

I love songs but am inhibited to have my characters burst out to express themselves through songs. I use the route of using old songs at the right places.

Ek Hasina Thi' is a love story that went sour.

The experience of an actual film from idea to screen will teach me more than most books and lectures.

Frankly, you cannot match the action in a Bond or a Bourne film. Forget budgets, it needs an expertise which I probably lacked.

In love stories you have to establish the mood and then you can go on. Writing thrillers are difficult because every scene needs a twist. May be comedy is even more difficult but I have no experience of it.

‘Badlapur’ was my first film that did well, commercially. People have also watched the other films that I have made, but they didn’t bring in the footfall."

Ever since my first film, I had more producers than scripts. And I’ve realised that a certain project requires a certain kind of producer for it to be made well."

When people watch good films they want other films to be of that calibre as well particularly when you cater to the same core audience.

With 'Badlapur', I wasn’t even thinking about casting. I was wondering whether any producer will want to make a film with a story like this. It is not your expected, feel-good, or even your regular thriller."

I have never had the problem of finding a producer for my films. I think I am just lucky because my first film didn’t do great box office business.