MUMBAI: Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has a life lesson for budding screenwriters and directors. On his verified Twitter account on Tuesday, the 74-year-old veteran emphasised the best characters evolve within oneself.

"Lessons of life: For those looking to write/direct movies, remember that characters move plots. Plots do not move characters. And the best stories, the best characters, evolve from deep inside yourselves. You are the story, you are the characters," Kapur tweeted on Tuesday.

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Earlier this week, the filmmaker had tweeted about how panicking before a shoot helps to boost his creativity.

"Lessons of Life: Anxiety can be a force of creativity too. A creative energy. But anxiety must be followed by action. I will often deliberately panic my mind just before the start of the shooting day. For at the state of panic, my creativity too gets supercharged. And then flows," he had tweeted on Sunday.

"Lessons on creativity: Far far more important than the skill of a director, is the director's understanding of human emotion, of human perception, and the ability to look at all the characters with compassion," the filmmaker had shared in another tweet last week.

He had also offered advice for artistes struggling to get a break in the film industry with a tweet that read: "Lessons of Life: ‘I've been struggling for 5 years and have had no break yet!' I empathise. I understand. A usual story in Mumbai. I should know. It took me 12 years of struggle before I made Masoom. What I survived on? Hope. And belief in myself. They are your best friends."

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