A biography for Asif Kapadiahasn’t been written yet.
“On 'Senna,' it got to the point where there was so much footage that our first editor had the wild suggestion that we only use the archive.”
“'Do the Right Thing' has been a big influence on me. I saw it when it first came out in 1989. I was about 18, and it blew me away on many levels - I had never seen anything like it before.”
“My background is from India, and I always get asked, 'When are you going to do an Indian film, a musical or Bollywood film?'”
“Directing can be very lonely and quite intimidating.”
“When I was given the opportunity to direct 'Senna,' I decided the film had to work for audiences who disliked sport or had never seen a Formula One race in their lives. It had to thrill and emotionally engage people who had never heard of Ayrton Senna.”
“I lived in Camden, Primrose Hill and Kentish Town for 10 years.”
“My films often have a spiritual dimension which comes from my Muslim background, and I'm happy to tackle that in cinema.”
“Real life is far more complicated than fiction.”
“The thing people don't get about Indian films is that the songs are the story.”
“We want to make movies for the big screen. We want people to go to the theater and feel like they're watching a movie.”
“A big part of my filmmaking is that I can go somewhere new and, visually, be excited by it.”
“My wife Victoria Harwood was art director on 'Far North,' and she had designed my student film, 'The Sheep Thief.'”
“As far as I'm concerned, I make movies.”
“As a filmmaker, you complete a film you have spent years obsessively making, and you know the release prints will never look quite the same; prints get scratched and dirty.”
“'Senna' took five years, 'Amy' took three years. You try and say, 'Look, there's no deadline.' That's important. Just saying, 'We've got to make the film. And once the film's ready, it will be out there.'”
“I used to live in Pillgwenlly, and there was this old Italian pizzeria that used to be there with a really amazing character who ran it.”
“Weirdly enough, I live in London - was born there and have lived there all my life - but I hadn't made a film in London for a long time. I hadn't found the right subject. I liked going away, to some far flung place.”
“There are no drivers like Formula One drivers. They are engineers, in a way. They are driving manual cars one-handed at 200 miles per hour around streets in Monaco. These cars use the ultimate in technology.”
“I don't normally make documentaries. I'm a drama director. I've made a few short docs, but I don't like talking heads or 'voice of God' narrators.”
“My background is Indian, so I believe in a spiritual idea that there is another level, another layer or layers, if you will, above us. I believe that there are elements that allow things to be drawn together, a sort of energy.”