Anurag Kashyap: I wonder if films like Achhut Kannya or Aandhi could see a release today

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap says that people get offended so easily these days that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be an artist.

Anurag Kashyap’s brand of cinema is known to be earthy, realistic and unabashed. He, however, feels that expressing thoughts or “making films freely” is proving to be a challenge as “people object to anything and everything these days”.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap feels that the agitation against Padmaavat is in many ways “similar” to what his film Udta Punjab (2016) faced before its release. (HT Photo)

The 45-year-old director of films such as Dev D (2009), Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) says, “I wonder if films like Achhut Kannya (1936) or Aandhi (1975) could even get made or see a release [today]. The way things are, it’s pretty scary. Everyone gets offended so easily that it is becoming increasingly difficult to be an artist.” Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat is proof of the trouble that films and people involved face nowadays.

Kashyap’s latest film, Mukkabaaz, received a thumbs up from critics for addressing India’s socio-political issues. “I would always want to show the circumstances that are around characters in my film, because they make that character. I’m not a politician and I don’t have a political agenda to show anything. I’m not afraid to talk about the truth,” he says.

“Because 10 years down the line, or in future, the world will look at all this and see how people talk about truth and lies according to their own convenience. So, I want to make a comment on the consequences of such decisions,” adds Kashyap.

The filmmaker feels that the agitation against Padmaavat is in many ways “similar” to what his film Udta Punjab (2016) faced. “There was so much said... that [my film] will destroy Punjab. That it’s maligning politicians, this and that. Did anything happen after the film released? People just create unnecessary hype and problems.”

Although he is both a contributor and consumer of social media, Kashyap fees that the Internet has made people more vulnerable. “These days people [blindly] believe what is being circulated on Whatsapp. You send anything that sounds like news and people will believe it to be news,” he says.

Jokingly sharing how he, too, has been a victim of “fake news”, Kashyap shares, “Someone sent me a message that (Hollywood actor) Morgan Freeman has died. And I believed it and started telling people about it. It was only later, that my friends pointed out that he is still alive. But you know that’s how you end up believing what’s not fake, thanks to Whatsapp.”

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