Anurag Kashyap On #MeToo

Brut India

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap speaks to Brut India about his production house Phantom films, the impact of #MeToo and making the popular Netflix series Sacred Games.

Transcript

00:00I wanted to be free.

00:02I don't think I have the thing in me to produce anymore.

00:06I only want to direct.

00:25I also don't want to be answerable for things that

00:29I can't control or I can't do.

00:32I want to be answerable for self.

00:38The whole Me Too movement in India

00:40started off and it was just so strong

00:43and it was effecting change.

00:45And then today if everybody talks about Rakhi Sawant

00:48who is just seeking attention

00:51and does nothing more than that.

00:53And you know, everything goes astray then.

00:55And then everybody stops bothering about it.

01:10Say for example, the case we have been dealing with ourselves.

01:13When the judge says that you have no right to be a crusader

01:17on behalf of somebody who doesn't want to file a complaint.

01:21Right?

01:22We have to sit down and question ourselves before we question others.

01:25I was 18, 19 when I saw,

01:27I was sitting in a class and I saw a girl smoking.

01:29It was my conditioning that made me tell her

01:31women should not smoke.

01:33And the girl looked at me and scoffed at me and walked off.

01:37I'm like, what did I say wrong?

01:39When you read every single account

01:42like you know, and you feel like

01:44this seems familiar, this seems familiar.

01:47Like, maybe I've done this too.

01:50Maybe this is how I was.

01:53And it's very honest to introspect

01:55because that's when the change will begin.

02:11If they do that, then they're like,

02:14they'll be killing themselves.

02:16They have a massive audience because that massive audience

02:19also doesn't want their content to be censored.

02:23And people are mature enough to deal with it.

02:30They won't let me make it.

02:31And if I do, it'll be banned.

02:33The amount of fake news that's being peddled in India,

02:36people being manipulated,

02:38lies being told by

02:41people who are supposed to

02:43govern us and who are supposed to think like that.

02:46The whole atmosphere is like that.

02:48Trying to control every institution

02:50that's free, that's independent in thought.

03:01I can tell longer stories.

03:03There's less government control

03:06or morality control.

03:09And there's so much more we can do.

03:11It gives us time for us to sink our teeth into every character.

03:15So I think, for example, if Sacred Games was a movie,

03:17it would only be about the two people,

03:20Gaitonde and Sartaj Singh.

03:22But since it's a series, it can also be about

03:24Subhadra and Kuku and Bunty and Kartik.

03:26An audience that saw Sacred Games

03:28is more than three times

03:30the number of footfalls for the biggest film in India.

03:36New actors like Rajkumar Rao

03:38and Aryan and Ayushman Khurana

03:41are getting as much credibility as big stars.

03:45This has been a good year for mainstream cinema in India.

03:48And big star films have not worked.

03:50I would like to see all these newcomers

03:53like Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu

03:55become massive stars.

04:05I don't think cinema can make a difference in India.

04:08This is not socially.

04:10They make news, they make impact,

04:12and these people forget too soon.

04:14It's a very populated country.

04:16People are only trying to survive.

04:18The priority is surviving.

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