Very few Indian films have made such a huge impression on global cinema as Anurag Kashyap’s seminal 2012 movie Gangs of Wasseypur. The two-part gritty intergenerational magnum opus centred around the gang wars and its cycle of violence plaguing the country’s coal capital Dhanbad and its surrounding areas was screened at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight that year, a rare feat. 

Back home, the epic saga had such a far-reaching impact that today it is regarded as a cult classic.  The film not only brought together a gamut of super-talented actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Richa Chadha, Huma Qureshi, and Jaideep Ahlawat, who went on to headline the content-driven Hindi cinema that gave Bollywood a realistic upgrade—small-town Hindi-belt stories replaced frothy NRI romances, the focus shifted from the aspirational to the relatable, portrayal of violence became more authentic if unabashed—but also created the blueprint for the gritty crime sagas, including the likes of Mirzapur, Sacred Games, Pataal Lok, and the likes, that would eventually take over the OTT space. 

It was a landmark movie that much like Satya before it, which was co-written by Kashyap, brought about a change in the way Hindi cinema was made and viewed. The maverick filmmaker, who already enjoyed a cult following thanks to his clutter-breaking earlier works such as Last Train to Mahakali,Paanch, Black Friday (which served as inspiration to Danny Boyle for his Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire), No Smoking, Dev.D, Gulaal, also turned producer and establish Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited in 2009, adding an extra boost to the brewing new wave independent Hindi cinema movement. 

It got Udaan to Cannes in 2010, even before GoW, where it was screened in the Un Certain Regard category. He was also a producer on The Lunchbox, the film screened at Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Rail d'Or. He later co-founded Phantom Films(2011) which gave us critically acclaimed films like Lootera, Ugly, Queen, Masaan Udta Punjaab, Raman Raghav 2.0 etc. And when India entered the OTT era, Kashyap co-directed Sacred Games, under the Phantom banner. In fact, his latest venture Kennedy, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 to a packed house and got a 7-minute standing ovation.   

On a Bela Tarrish unforgiving and grainy monsoon afternoon steeped with melancholic drudgery, we caught up with a rather sleepy Anurag Kashyap at his Versova home for a brief chat, and it unraveled an adequately bleak world reverberating with the disillusioned refrain: “I don’t have any answers". Excerpts:  

How do you see India’s performance at the recent Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival? Do you think there is a fresh interest in Indian content?  

People are making very good films, and Indians are doing some great work, but India per se has nothing to do with it. All these filmmakers have made their movies with zero support from the country. India likes to jump into celebrations. There is a focus on Southeast Asia which includes India. RRR making such an impact is not about India, it is about having a unique voice… it so happens that SS Rajamouli is Indian. 

One of the main reasons for Iranian cinema’s global appeal was its hyperlocal aspect. But Hindi cinema tends to emulate Hollywood in an attempt to become international. How do you see this?  

Iranian cinema WAS hyperlocal; that was 20 years ago. Iranian cinema is not travelling anymore. Now, it is the cinema of East Europe, Korea, and other Asian nations. Cinema that travels is the voice of the filmmaker who is rooted. But then, we are looking for simplistic solutions.  

But we have had filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani…  

The cinema of Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, and the like might not be travelling that much internationally but they were doing something for Indian cinema. The cinema that was travelling was of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. In those days there was a system from the government in place that supported good cinema, empowered filmmakers, and gave them their own voice. That doesn’t exist anymore. 

Today everyone is making movies to cater to someone; they are thinking about the audience before they have even started with the movie. A Payal Kapadia stands out because she is not catering to anyone; she is finding her own voice. We need to identify and support what needs to be supported. Log hai humare paas. The problem is not that we make bad movies, but that we don’t support good movies. 

Do you think there is a growing aversion towards ‘Bollywood’? Why do you think that South cinema is becoming so popular across the country? Do you think we are also close to seeing Hindi Cinema breaking away from the shackles of ‘Bollywood’?  

It is still on the way. It is still Bollywood. We are still trying to find our roots. It will take time. Most regional cinema today is more rooted and authentic than what we are making here in Mumbai; even when they are making out-and-out commercial movies, they are catering to their own audience. For example: A film like Vikram…it has English songs but still, it is aimed at catering to its own local audience. 

Hindi cinema is not catering to anybody; it is catering to a presumed set of audiences who are invisible…they might or might not exist in real life. The main reason behind this is Hindi cinema is mostly generated by second and third-generation English-speaking filmmakers who don’t know the Hindi world; they are just after the money. 

Good cinema used to happen when filmmakers had a stake in them, now it is all business. They are into cinema but not into what’s going on around them—you can’t possibly build an authentic world when you have no real knowledge about it.

 On the other hand, if you look at the second-generation Tamil filmmakers, they still understand the world they live in and the world the audiences they are dealing with. South cinema is rooted, their characters are local. 

Characters of Hindi movies don’t belong to any class or any world. But it is not just the filmmakers who are to be blamed for this, it is the entire ecosystem. The audience will watch anything that is rooted and exciting. Hence, they find South cinema more exciting. They also find Korean cinema exciting. Anything intrinsic to the culture feels honest. Hindi cinema today doesn’t feel honest. 

Do you think the OTTs are changing the audience by making content from all over the world accessible?  

I don’t think the audience is changing. Indian audiences are brought up of free TV, they are not watching as much of the OTT content as we would like to believe. And now they are not watching Hindi movies either.   

But are OTTs giving more creative freedom to filmmakers like you?   

I am still not being able to release Kennedy. Everybody is trying to survive. People who are taking the calls in these OTT platforms are only trying to please someone or the other. Things are the same as it were when I made Black Friday—the only difference is that then I could fight in the court, now I can’t even do that. There is a fear of the unknown. Everyone is scared of doing the wrong thing, but they don’t care much about doing the right thing. Every film script has a lawyer attached to it. You can’t make a film without a lawyer anymore. It is sad but true.  

Are you disillusioned with the current state of cinema?  

I have gone through disillusionments many times; I was disillusioned when Black Friday got banned. My struggle is to stay relevant and remain an honest filmmaker. I don’t care about anything else.