Anurag Kashyap Interview: Nobody invests in culture when you want to control critical-thinking
“I won’t tell.” Filmmaker- actor Anurag Kashyap, who recently announced that he is moving to the South, is tight-lipped about the exact location. “Don’t want people to hover around my house,” he says with a smile, adding that he has already moved to a new place. “Even paid rent for the first month.”
The reasons for his shift are the same as before: disillusionment with the Hindi film industry, risk-averse producers, OTT’s relying on algorithms to make content and everybody trying to chase a “hit”. “Here nothing starts before a star is on-board,” he says.
Anurag’s southward shift has been marked by acclaimed performances in films like Maharaja (Tamil) and Rifle Club (Malayalam). He is also presenting the Kannada film Vagachipani (Tiger’s Pond) and the Tamil coming-of-age film Bad Girl. More acting projects include the Telugu-Hindi Dacoit: A Love Story, in which he plays a cop, and Delulu (Malayalam). We meet him on the sidelines of the release of the Hindi dub of the Malayalam thriller Footage (2024), which he is presenting. The Hindi version is coming six months after its original run and the director is confident about its reception. “Footage’s original release was affected by the Hema Committee report coming out. People were avoiding going to theatres at that time. I hope the Hindi version does well,” he says.
In this free-wheeling conversation, Anurag talks about what content Gen Z is consuming today, his take on re-release culture, why OTT platforms are closed to new ideas and what he thinks about a sequel to No Smoking (2007).
Excerpts:
You have been doing a lot of acting roles in South films, are you looking at writing and direction too?
There is a Malayalam-Hindi film I am working on. I am also in talks to do a Tamil film.
You have been a Bombay boy all your life, acting is one thing but to create stories rooted in an area, you need to know the nuances of the place…
I have lived extensively in the South from 1995 to 2001. Ram Gopal Varma’s office was in Chennai. Between Hyderabad and Chennai, I worked with directors like him, Shankar, Mani Ratnam. I actually have seen more South cinema than Hindi.
What do you think Gen Z is preferring to watch these days?
I don’t think today’s audience is interested in today’s films. They are content with watching old movies. Gen Z has seen so many films from around the world that there is nothing new a Hindi film can offer them. They are watching more Korean films, more Anime.
Your daughter Aaliyah is Gen Z. Has she seen all your films? Which is her favourite?
Her favourites are Kennedy and Black Friday. I actually don’t know if she has seen Gangs of Wasseypur (laughs).
What is happening with the release of Kennedy?
It is stuck with the studio. They have actually gone bankrupt and don’t have the money to release the film. We are trying to figure out other avenues.
A lot of re-releases are happening recently. Even Gangs of Wasseypur recently got a re-release, for the second time. One way it is good for films which didn’t get their due at the time of their original release to find new takers but one reason can also be that Bollywood has run out of new stories to tell…
It's not like we don’t have new stories. There are creative people still around but the support system for them has vanished. Every producer now wants to make a hit film. They are all scared. They don’t take risks. Now, before the release of any movie, they have to lock its OTT release, they have to ensure its cost recovery. By then it’s not a film anymore, it’s a project. Today films are being produced not by people who are passionate about filmmaking but by employees who are only trying to save their jobs.
Are OTT platforms the problem?
The problem is that they are closed to new ideas. They only want to increase their subscriber-base. Moreover, now everything is based on algorithms. Data is dictating which films to make. Hence, nothing new is getting made.
Your contemporaries like Vikramaditya Motwane and Sudip Sharma seem to have found a way around OTTs. We thought you might too…
See, Vikram made Black Warrant with Applause (Entertainment), it wasn’t produced by Netflix. Sudip’s Paatal Lok season 2 took five years to come out. I can’t spend that much time of my life on one thing. My funda is simple, write a script, make a film and move on.
Lately, there has been an increased number of conversations about ‘content is king’ and ‘writers should be empowered’. Is any change happening on the ground?
Not at all. A writer is the first ‘investor’ into a script and he is not paid till a star comes on-board. If you really want to empower writers, pay them first.
Will you ever make a sequel to any of your films? John (Abraham) has been mentioning in various interviews how he has brought up the idea of No Smoking 2 with you?
If somebody comes up with a nice concept, a film in that Kafkaesque zone can be made. I am not going to make a sequel to a film just because it has gained a cult reputation.
Do you feel like the Hindi-film seeing audience has also not been nurtured as a film-appreciating audience?
Yes, and the problem is on multiple levels. Hindi films are being made in Mumbai. However, the audience of these films are in areas like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand yet, they have the lowest number of cinema halls. So, makers don’t sell their films in these states and that audience has now started consuming Telugu movies.
But, isn’t it a huge audience for the Hindi film industry to let go of?
It is and the only reason is that they are scared of culture. When you want to control thought and critical-thinking, then you stop investing in culture. They only want to propagate mass-hysteria films.