I am a filmmaker. My job is to make films. When something excites you - a story or characterisation - you immediately forget about everything else. You only think how to make a movie out of it. The economics come only later. You shouldn't let money dictate the kind of films you should make.

People like to see Ravi Teja as a vibrant, massy character. We needed to do something more. So I gave him the extra flavour of the cop character and high emotions. And Ravi did a good job.

I was very happy when I was doing my first two films: 'Student No.1', 'Simhadri'. I had absolutely no doubts - I would just place my camera at one point and say, 'That is the right way.'

I shoot a scene, edit it, and then, two days later, I doubt whether or not it has turned out right. I reshoot a small part of it, go back to the first edit of it, and do all sorts of things.

Money is not the ultimate point, but it remains the actual measure of success.

If you've been fortunate enough to have some success in business, I think it's important to put something back.

I realised that success and pure creativity are not very compatible. The more successful you become, the more you become a product of something that generates money. Instead of being able to move forward freely and do what you really wish, you find yourself stuck and obliged to repeat yourself and your previous success.

I once drove a pair of horses from New York to Vicksburg, and to this day I can almost map out that country as I saw it then, with its hills and valleys, villages and rivers. Yes, I naturally attribute something of my success in railroad building to the interest I take in such things.