Anurag Kashyap is known for his candid views on storytelling trends and the challenges faced by filmmakers and artists. In a recent interview with Humans of Cinema, he discussed the creative crisis in the Hindi film industry, attributing it to the obsession with earning ₹500-800 crore.
Kashyap highlighted how commercial success can stifle creativity, saying, “Success often destroys more than it breeds. When Sairat made ₹100 crore, I told my friend Nagraj Manjule that Marathi cinema was now finished. Now, everyone will want to make ₹100 crore rather than tell stories.”
He elaborated on the issue in the Hindi film industry: “The problem is that now they want to earn ₹500 to 800 crore, not make films. To do that, you have to dumb down your films and sacrifice your story. It’s not even original; everyone follows a formula and copies each other. Everyone is imitating the pan-India trend. If you watch 10 pan-India films, they all look the same. This harms the industry because it leads to a large number of flops. One or two might work, but then everyone copies, and everything flops.”
Anurag Kashyap has directed numerous Bollywood films and web shows, including Black Friday, Dev D, No Smoking, Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur, Mukkabaaz, Sacred Games, and Manmarziyaan. His upcoming film Kennedy was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. This neo-noir thriller stars Rahul Bhat, Sunny Leone, Abhilash Thapliyal, and Mohit Takalkar. Reflecting on the Cannes experience in an interview with Film Companion, Kashyap said, “It’s always special to show your film to the world at Cannes, and it’s a lifetime moment to play at the Grand Theatre Lumiere. Kennedy is a very special film to me, and extremely personal too. We put our heart and soul into making this film. The 7-minute standing ovation from the audience filled me with gratitude. I am very grateful and excited at the same time.”
Anurag Kashyap will next appear in a negative role in Vijay Sethupathi’s Tamil crime action-thriller Maharaja.
