When I see poverty around, it churns my heart.

On the first day of my shoot for ‘School Master,’ I was feeling a little uneasy because I had to travel a lot. I was feeling a little sleepy too. After the completion of each shot, I would go for a small nap.

I don’t get bored of life. I always find things that excite me.

Vittorio De Sica’s ‘Bicycle Thieves‘ changed my very idea of cinema.

The economic freedom has come to a lot of us who are lucky, but many women are still beaten up by husbands, even when they are breadwinners.

Mani laughs every time he hears someone ask me, ‘Don’t you miss acting?’ Because he sees me with make-up on every morning and leaving for the studios.

For me, going to the gym for an hour is important not because I appear on screen, but because I am healthy.

With summer in Chennai, I am struggling with my long hair. I do my own hair-dos which are comfortable.

Raja Ravi Varma was one of the few Indians who not only understood women but also represented them exquisitely in a single dimension within four frames, infusing each painting with life through the use of color.

Women should be able to come out and narrate stories from their point of view.

Men directors somehow think it’s great to show heroes all unkempt and ungroomed. You’d be able to smell the hero‘s aftershave lotion if a woman directed him.

We women want to take the easy way out. I appreciate men because they take risks.

My parents and their well-being comes before my work.

Direction gives me happiness and acting gives me peace.

In 1983, when I did ‘Sindhu Bhairavi’ and played the other woman, many men came up to me and said it opened up a lot to them. The film showed that a man and woman could have an intellectual and artistic relationship.

When I am at home, I am there and when I’m shooting or doing any other thing, I concentrate on that.

Technology has definitely changed a lot, and it has made the medium of cinema very accessible for aspirants.

I only like non-fiction. After 30 pages of fiction, I think: what nonsense are they trying to write.

My love is music… I do not give too much importance to love and romance.

‘Hasini Pesum Padam’ was about reviewing Tamil movies that released every week. I felt it is more of an international platform and hence used trendy trousers and different kinds of tops.

The more women grow economically, there will be more allegations against them. If they don’t grow, if they are quiet, nobody is going to find fault with them.

When my son Nandan was in middle school, I had a fun way of doing his maths homework. I bought another set of mathematics books and both of us would sit side by side and start solving problems.

An actor is a thinking person.

If you are making a film for the first time, you have all the problems and fears. Yet, you have the freedom that you will never get in life.

The Indian film industry has a condescending attitude towards its fans without actually intending to. They want to explain everything, leaving very little to the filmgoers’ imagination.

Those who respect the intelligence of the common man have always been masters.

Hasn’t everyone written a leave letter while at school? Or sent a text message? There is a writer in all of us.

In Queen Mary‘s, which was an all-girls’ college, I learned discipline, hard work and to be competitive. But at Madras Film Institute, I learned about the world, being free and knowledgeable, and thinking beyond oneself.

We south Indians are clannish and comfortable about our languages.

Every language will have different nuances. But language cannot be the basis for discrimination or exclusion.

Though the first day of college was scary, I gradually adjusted to the environment and started enjoying myself with friends, lecturers, sports, and college day functions.

I got a Best Actress award from the Kerala government when I was 24, and I got another one when I was 42. I was more thrilled when I got it for the second time.

I would like to give one message: Live life light with a smile.

Just like only qualified people should work in films, only qualified people should review the film.

Though I read and speak Malayalam, Malayalis won‘t accept outsiders speaking their language.

I think if an actor is not able to pronounce their own dialogues, no matter what language, you are not an actor.

I think as film actors we are comfortable on stage because we know what the audience expects. The only tricky part is to remember the lines and that body language is key, which is something we tend to forget after years of acting in front of a camera.

I don’t really like event managing – I don’t even manage my house.

I was born in a part of Tamil Nadu notorious for eliminating the girl child. I was the third daughter born to my parents and I have my mother to thank for deciding that I was not an unwanted child.

In the digital world, we have forgotten the meaning of ‘persistence of vision‘. Art is something we have to hold on to.

I don’t believe in God, in prayer, in going to temples begging God to give me and my family happiness. I am not asking everyone to be an atheist, but good thoughts are not spent in a temple.

We know of instances of stage plays being made into films. But I really think that all Tamil films can be staged; I’d like to take up K. Balachander’s films and do that.

In a film festival, people come to watch because they are interested in cinema. It’s not like watching a premiere show or being in any cinema hall, where you are not with like-minded people.

Anant Nag and Vishuvardhan sir are two of the best actors with whom I have worked.

All art cinema is not great; some of the films can put you to sleep.

After 40, every day is a bonus. We should know how to live our lives to the fullest.

It is difficult to accept failure when you are a student. It is also difficult to succeed because everyone is so competitive!

Throughout school I studied in Tamil medium schools but it was only when I got to college that I realized that not learning English was a great disadvantage as I didn’t understand even the simplest of sentences.

Chennai has amazing talent, but in terms of organization… not so much.

There are few teachers from the film industry to guide newcomers. One can see a gap between the film industry and those teaching at film schools.

I stopped seeing mainstream films 15 years ago. They are absolutely unbearable.

Not many people know that I turned down my husband‘s first directorial, the Kannada film ‘Pallavi Anupallavi,’ something he still hasn’t forgiven me for.

I have seen a lot of people who are affected by HIV. When I see that there is industrial growth on one side but there is not awareness on the other side, it breaks my heart.

I prefer to work behind the camera.

I have been acting for more than 25 years and have worked in all the four Southern languages. But it is in the Kannada films that I got huge recognition and variety of roles.

Often our onscreen personas are different from who we are. Actors like Kamal Haasan, who is such a genius, has never played a role close to what he is in real life.

I have a great sense of humour. I am teasing, taunting and authoritative.

I am a humble speaker, I speak very well.

The business of looking good is very difficult. This has often made me consider retirement from films.

I do things normal event managers cannot do, thanks to my years in the film industry.

You need to understand the meaning of the dialogue to be able to convey it right. You need to know it to understand the nuances of the scene.

Films are a fantastic medium and the huge impact they have cannot be denied.

In Chennai, I do film reviews for a local channel. Every second movie I review is by a debutant. There is so much passion and freshness in those films; that makes them special.

I come from a family with many dancers, my aunts learnt dance, so did Kamal Haasan and, as a child I learnt it, too.

There are about 250 curators in the world who keep their eyes open to choose films from around the globe for festivals. I am one of them.

Actors should be writers. While a writer puts the story on paper, an actor puts it on screen.