Washington, February 5 : Danny Boyle could not be more grateful that he dumped his early priesthood ambitions to turn to showbiz.

The 52-year-old revealed that as a boy he harboured dreams of becoming a priest to impress his mum, but was talked out of it with no regrets.

"It''s not a joke - actually there (are) loads of directors who as a side-off kind of flirted with the priesthood. Martin Scorsese, John Wood. My mom''s a very devout Catholic from Ireland and she wanted me, her eldest son, to be a priest," Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

"There was this priest who said to me, ''I don''t think you should do it. I think you should wait until girls and music and all those things come into your life.''

"And I don''t know if he was trying to save me or the priesthood (but) I''m very grateful to him for it," he added.

Danny has vowed many with his film `The Slumdog Millionaire', for which he won awards at the Golden Globes and Critics'' Choice Awards, along with winning 11 and 10 nominations at the forthcoming British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTAs) and the Oscars respectively. (ANI)