Anurag Kashyap has worked extensively in the showbiz world. Recently, he made some critical comparisons between Bollywood and South Indian Cinema.
Anurag Kashyap is a prominent filmmaker, actor, screenwriter, and producer in the film industry. He is known for sharing his candid opinions on the new trends and controversies in the film industry. As a filmmaker and an artist, he has been vocal about the problems grappling the Hindi film industry. Recently, he sat down for an interview with Humans of Cinema, where he made some critical comparisons between Bollywood and the South film industry.
Since the past couple of years, Bollywood has witnessed several big-budget movies flop at the box office. Simultaneously, South Indian films are rising in popularity in the country. As a result, more filmmakers are pursuing to make adaptations or remakes of successful South Indian movies. It has caused a creative crisis in the Hindi film industry with a lack of originality. Anurag Kashyap believes that the success of a film at the box office impacts creativity because filmmakers focus on collections. He was quoted as saying:
“The problem with our Hindi film industry is that they now want to earn Rs. 500 to 800 crore, not make films. For that, you have to first dumb down your films and sacrifice your story. And it’s not like it is an original voice; all follow a formula and copy each other. Now, everyone is imitating the pan-India trend. If you watch ten pan-India films, all will look the same."
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Anurag Kashyap has worked with a lot of successful Bollywood actors. However, he revealed that he may never direct Shah Rukh Khan in a film. The aura and charm of the Pathaan actor are what fans love about him. Consequently, he feels that he won't be able to recreate that on-screen in his capacity as a director. He said:
"In this day and age of social media, I am terrified by the fanbases big stars have. Actors get typecast because of fans, and the fans want the same things from them again and again. If that doesn’t happen, fans reject it, so even actors get apprehensive about trying new things. So it’s not in my capacity to cater to Shah Rukh Khan’s aura or enigma.”
Besides focusing on commercial gains, Anurag compared the ticket price contrast in the Hindi and South film industries. He stated that there is a limit on the ticket prices in Telugu. Irrespective of a film's budget or scale, a luxury seat in a theatre would cost around Rs. 250. The price won't exceed whether it's a big film like RRR, a small or an independent film. However, the ticket price for Bollywood films is much higher, often turning audiences away.
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Anurag Kashyap is known for directing popular films like Black Friday, Dev D, No Smoking, Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur, Mukkabaaz, and Manmarziyaan. He shall next be seen as an antagonist in Vijay Sethupathi's Tamil crime action-thriller, Maharaja.
Do you agree with Anurag Kashyap's opinion on Bollywood?
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