Mumbai: Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, expressed his disappointment with Hindi film industry and plans to shift to the South.
The filmmaker, who gave his daughter Aaliyah Kashyap in marriage recently, vented out that Bollywood filmmakers don’t have brains to make a superhit film like their contemporaries in the south. The filmmakers in Hindi film industry only think about making profit and nothing else, he opined.
“I envy them (South filmmakers). Because now, it’s difficult for me to go out and experiment. Because now, it comes at a cost. Which makes my producers think about profit. They’re like, ‘Where are my margins? I’m losing money.’ I’m like, ‘You don’t want to make this movie? Don’t make this movie. But I just cannot.’ Because right from the beginning, before the film starts, it becomes about ‘how do we sell it?’ So the joy of filmmaking is sucked out. That’s why I want to move out. Literally, next year, I’m moving out of Mumbai,” Anurag said while expressing his disappointment.
Revealing the reason behind relocating to South, Anurag said that he craves ‘stimulation,’ and if he continues to make Hindi films then he’d ‘die out an old man.’
Quoting the example of Chidambaram S. Poduval’s blockbuster Malayalam thriller ‘Manjummel Boys,’ Anurag said that such films can never be made in Bollywood.
Pointing out that Bollywood filmmakers can never make a blockbuster like ‘Pushpa’, he said, “They cannot because they don’t have the brains to make a film. They don’t understand what filmmaking is. A Pushpa is made by a Sukumar. If you go down South, they invest in a filmmaker and empower them to make a film. One of the bestest minds to empower filmmakers is Suresh Babu, Rana’s (Daggubati) father. He’s empowered so many first-time filmmakers. He talks so much sense. But I don’t know why people in Hindi don’t listen to him. And he’s not a random person. And he’s talking commerce, he’s not talking art. But he can see. He has a vision. Here, everyone is trying to create a formula. They think if one thing works, everyone is trying to create a universe. I don’t understand. Do you understand your own universe you live in? How minuscule you are? That’s the ego. Since you’re creating a universe, you think you’re God. That’s the arrogance,” Anurag added.
However, Anurag didn’t spare all South films. He said that he recently read a statement by filmmaker S Shankar that he’s made his next, Ram Charan-starrer action entertainer Game Changer, like how the audience consumes Instagram Reels. Anurag said he isn’t sure what that means, but once filmmakers start thinking of what the audience wants, they’ve signed up for a downfall. He said filmmakers like Shankar, whom he once considered ‘chefs,’ have now become ‘caterers.’
Anurag, who is currently busy acting in South films, admitted that he needs money to survive in Tinseltown. The filmmaker was last seen in Rifle Club and Viduthalai Part 2.
