In a recent interview, Bollywood filmmaker Anurag Kashyap opened up about boycott culture in Bollywood and elsewhere. The director also mentioned that Sushant Singh Rajput has been trending for two years now.
The Boycott Culture
Quite recently many Bollywood films like Laal Singh Chaddha, Shamshera, Shabaash Mithu, and Raksha Bandhan were facing the wrath of netizens, who have called for a boycott of film. Talking about the latest boycott culture that has altered the nation, director Anurag Kashyap said that today if he wanted to make films like Black Friday and Gangs of Wasseypur, he would not be able to make them.
While speaking with Indianexpress, Anurag said, “Today if I have to make a Black Friday or a Gangs of Wasseypur, I don’t think I can make it. Because I have seen it, I have tried to, I have written a lot of scripts but there are no takers. There are no takers for a lot of films which are remotely about politics or religion”.
The fear, Anurag said, is real and its impact is out there for everyone to witness. “If there are no brave voices to back even braver vision, how does one make films in the country? Those things people are scared about. There are just no takers, so how do you make them? How do you make a film if you have to say something in today’s day and age?” he asks.
Looking at the situation, the director believes that there is not so much from an emotional perspective, but with a sense of approach of artists fighting against a system that is ‘unfair’.
“We are in a place where we have an extremely unfair fight. It is an unfair game. If there is a match between two teams, each team will have 11 players. Here, one team has one player and the other has all 11, including the umpire, the players sitting on the bench, the scoreboard, and even the entire stadium! What will that lone person do standing against them? There is nothing that we can do,” he says.
Linking Sushant Singh’s death
The 49-year-old also finds roots in the hashtags that are turned into social media weapons against the film industry. From justice for Sushant Singh Rajput–the actor’s death in 2020 had developed into a social and political movement, which still occasionally overpowers the internet–to calls for a boycott of Bollywood films.
“We are living in very strange times. Two years later, Sushant Singh Rajput still trends every day. These are strange times, where everything is to be boycotted. It is not just on one side, it is happening across. Everyone is being boycotted: political parties, the Indian cricket team, everyone. This country now has a boycott culture. if you are not being boycotted, then you don’t matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anurag is gearing up for the release of his latest directorial Dobaaraa on August 19. The film is a new-age thriller that marks the reunion of Taapsee and Anurag for the third time after 2018 hit Manmarziyaan and biopic drama Saand Ki Aankh (2019), on which he served as producer.
Speaking about his next film and the impact it could receive, the filmmaker said, “We are dealing with the consequences of our own choices, whatever it is, we have to accept it. You cannot sit here and say oh no. There are lots of countries that have survived a lot. There is also a way to survive and continue doing something, continue being relevant. Or do nothing, just exist.”
‘Dobaaraa’ is jointly produced by Ektaa Kapoor’s Cult Movies, a new division under Balaji Telefilms, and Sunir Kheterpal and Gaurav Bose’s banner Athena.
