How did you develop your screenplay for "The Warrior"?

It was co-written with my tutor from the Royal College of Art, Tim Miller, who shares my interest in magic realism, morality tales and folk tales. The basic idea for the film is a guy who tries to change from being a violent man. He nearly kills a young girl and at that moment, he decides he wants to leave this  violent world. But by trying  to do something good his life falls apart and terrible things happen to him which sets him off on an epic journey.

What was it like filming in India?

The desert in Rajasthan was pretty hot - it got up to 47 degrees, and the video assist machine kept blowing up, so I couldn't see any rushes for the first couple of weeks. The advantage of filming in the middle of nowhere is that nobody interferes with you,  you don¹t have to frame things out like cars or telegraph poles, and there¹s nothing else to do but make the movie.

Was it not daunting to make such an ambitious first feature?

The first day was pretty scary. You realize that you're using a 500-year-old fort which no one has been in for decades because it's apparently cursed. I had 250 crew standing behind me, 500 extras and I was the youngest person on the unit.  Later in the shoot I started to panic when one of the locals threatened to commit suicide if we filmed in his village. In the end we had to build a new village entirely from scratch, and completely burn it down a few days later.