‘Manmarziyan’ Director Anurag Kashyap is back with another riveting cinematic piece ‘Dobaaraa’. The film presently is facing issues with the #BoycottBollywood movement going on. In his realistic drama films, he picks out certain unseen but existing truths. His films have been receiving love and hate simultaneously. While in an interview, he was of the opinion that Bollywood’s biggest setback comes from a lack of originality.
While addressing imitation, Anurag Kashyap said,
“The biggest problem with YRF is the trial room effect. You take a story and you want to make a ‘Pirates of Caribbean’ out of it so it becomes ‘Thugs of Hindustan’. You take a story and you want to make ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ out of it so it becomes ‘Shamshera’. What is not on screen, can’t be cinema.”
Further he backs the South Indian Cinema by appreciating their films like Pushpa, RRR which represent Telugu cinema, and Malayalam films which represent their culture and their states. Kashyap stands against the remake patterns of Bollywood.
“Cinema is the soft cultural ambassador of any country. We are forgetting that. What soft culture are we propagating through Hindi films? How do we know us? Half of our films don’t represent us at all.”
The pandemic has changed the dynamics of many Industries. OTTs booming in such a short span has left the film industry in a scuffle. He adds to the reasons behind Bollywood’s failure,
“Everybody is looking because everybody is scared and confused. Pandemic combined with OTT has thrown people off.”
Pointing out Aditya Chopra’s mistake to dictate people in his film, Anurag articulates about taking monopolistic patterns away from Bollywood, for Hindi films to thrive again.
“If Aditya Chopra has hired a bunch of people, he needs to empower them and not dictate them. Not control the casting, not control everything, sit in your office. Hire good people, if you trust them and let them make the film. Which is the mistake he makes, he doesn’t let them.”
When asked about affixing Hindi cinema if he had a chance, he said,
“I would bring a lot of outsiders and just let them be. I am saying when you pick someone you allow that person or let that person tell their own story. Just based on success, because somebody has a stream of success behind them, I would not let them dictate how newer people coming in should make films. Why south works very well is because nobody is dictating. We have to empower people. You don’t dictate them.”
Breaking the norms, fixing the remake culture, and maintaining the quintessence of Hindi films, Anurag Kashyap holds a firm perception of Cinema. He knows what he makes and wants the audience to receive. With Directors like him still in Bollywood, we can keep our hopes alive.
Source: Anurag Kashyap Interview With Baradwaj Rangan | Wide Angle | Dobaaraa