Jaisa society hai, waisa hi film banega na: Anurag Kashyap

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who was in town on Sunday to attend the screening of his film Kennedy at the ongoing Kolkata International Film Festival, didn’t mince words when asked about a variety of issues, including how he doesn’t believe in censorship and why he thinks Shah Rukh Khan lifted a ‘curse’ from Bollywood. Excerpts:

'When I said Shah Rukh Khan lifted the curse on Bollywood, I meant the ‘supposed’ curse – the online Boycott Bollywood. After he lifted it, we’ve had five-six (big hits)'

‘I THINK DEVDAS IS SARATCHANDRA’S WEAKEST NOVEL’

I’ve read a lot of Sarat Chandra (Chattopadhyay) and I found Devdas to be his weakest novel. It was also made (into films) the most number of times. And by chance I came across a version of the story of his life spent in Bangladesh. Then I realised where Devdas came from. It was a fictionalized version of the life he lived in Bangladesh. So I based Dev.D on the source, not the book, and made it more contemporary.

'I often come to Kolkata to spend time with my friends. And we eat a lot! Even this time, I ordered biryani on the way to the hotel. We also had a Bengali lunch at a Salt Lake restaurant. Dinner was Chelo kebab, Tamarind aubergine and Crackling spinach at a Park Street eatery'

‘THE STRUGGLE I WENT THROUGH WAS MY CHOICE’

Maine struggle nahi kiya, main bahut privileged aadmi hoon. Mere pitaji ne mujhe best education diya hai. Main padha-likha aadmi hoon; aur padha-likha hona hi ek privilege hai aaj ke time mein. The struggle I went through was my choice – that I’ll make these kinds of films. For 99% of the people involved with the film industry, it’s a means of livelihood. For 1%, it’s a medium of expression, or something more than that. So, 1% ko 99% ke saath kam karna hai. Sab ka struggle alag alag hai. Hum ko bhi toh funds studios se hi aati hai na? But the same studio that produced Gadar also produced Kennedy.

'When I feel down, I just look at people who are in worse situations than I am. I see Iranian filmmakers like Jafar Panahi still making films and I’m like, I live in a country that makes 1,000 films a year. And I’m really fortunate that I get to make one film a year'

‘I CAN NEVER BE ON THE CENSOR BOARD. IF I AM, I’LL PASS EVERY FILM AS IT IS’

There’s a duplicity in all of us as human beings. We have to understand that the four people in the censor board, watching a film, are in a very peculiar position. They’re very scared… what they pass or not pass will have some kind of a reaction. Who it will offend where, they don’t know. There’s no law in the country that says that if something is cleared by the censor board, the state has to enforce it, because it has been cleared by a body. Blame inke (censor board) upar aata, aur yeh log aur dar jaate hain. So, film by film, inke rules change hote rehte hain. Kaun si film release huyi, aur uske upar kitna offense, kitna outrage hota hai, uske upar unki next film decide hoti hain.

'I have fought the censor board for Dev.D, Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur. If my reasoning is strong, I’ll fight for it till the Supreme Court. We did that for Udta Punjab. So, if I don’t believe in myself, and let other people destroy my film, then why did I make it in the first place?'

ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ON-SCREEN VIOLENCE

I have a peculiar relationship with violence. It affects me a lot, so I address it differently in different films. In real life, I faint when I see blood. In most of my films, I keep the violence off screen… in (Gangs of) Wasseypur, it was explicit. I didn’t cut away from it as I wanted to test the limit of how much one can endure. It was, for me, also funny, as it was an outrageous film. In Raman Raghav 2.0, it was always out of the frame because it wasn’t about the violence, but about the man.

'Jaisa society hai, waisa hi film banega na. These films (with violence, sex, misogyny) work because they resonate with 90% of Indians'