Although I enjoyed writing Film Music it was always a means to an end, in that it enabled me to keep a wife and family and write my classical music, which has always been my passion.
Northeastern folk music influenced me from a very young age. Sachin Dev Burman is one of the inspirational musicians in Indian film music. The way he fused folk music with his signature style is amazing. So, I am aware of the beauty of northeast folk music.
I thought about going to NYU film school - that was this ideal to me. But I didn't make any kind of grades in high school.
I was happy when I got into film school. I'd simply satisfied my ambition to show them that I could get in - nothing else - although I do believe they shouldn't have accepted me. I was a complete idiot. I can't understand why they took me. Probably because I'd tried three times.
I loved David Lean, he had a huge influence on me when I was going to film school.
I think being on a film set for such a long time made me a technical actor without realizing it.
Most of my life, I've been on a film set. There isn't anything to learn, not learn, unlearn. It's just in me.
I didn't start out thinking that I could ever make films. I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to filmmakers and close to film sets.
My wife comes with me on all the movies, but she is not an appendage to a film star or anything like that. She is a completely intertwined partner. She is the other half of me. Also, we're still very much in love with each other. We always have been, we always will be.
For me, a diva is like the great opera singer, the great film star - out of reach, in their own world, with a real gift for invention: attention-demanding performance artists with a flamboyant, compelling sense of their own importance so special and inimitable it verges on the alien.
I'm still Sean that me mates went to school with, not Sean the film star. And that's the way I prefer to be.
Actually Maddy is my name. But I feel that whenever you address somebody, there needs to be certain amount of dignity rendered to it - irrespective of whether it's a film star or somebody you are fond of. I find it very pleasing when somebody refers to me as 'Mr. Madhavan' or 'Sir' or 'Mr. Maddy.'
I cannot be expected to behave like a film star when I have decided to serve my people. They have voted for me with expectations, and I cannot take them for granted.
Film was something I didn't really think about when I was young, because if you looked like me, you weren't a film star.
I always found the film world unpleasant. It's all about the schedule, and never really flew for me.
I could, of course, have written about the film world and the jealousy there and the frequent belief that others don't have talent. But, for some reason, it just struck me to write about art.
'Naked' kind of kicked me off into the film world. It just so happens that all of the things that I have been offered have been films, and I've enjoyed the travel that goes along with that.
For a very long time, I wasn't thought of as anyone with any credibility in the film world. Everybody is tramping through the swamp every day in this business. 'I'm worth it, I'm credible - believe me, give me a shot!' That's the way I feel on a consistent basis.
I'm a pretty normal person outside of the film world. It doesn't really affect me when I'm at school or with my mates.
At least I know that one film-maker in my career has had the initiative to come to me and thought of me as being capable of doing interesting and complicated work, and so I have a new-found belief that other film-makers will see me in a different way, the way that Patty did.
