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EXCLUSIVE: Anurag Kashyap was told Bombay Velvet is art house film made on commercial budget, Here’s why
As Anurag Kashyap prepares to screen Kennedy at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, the filmmaker shares that he works best with limited resources.
Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy headlined by Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, will be closing the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne on August 20. In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, the acclaimed filmmaker opened up about attending the festival, and why he works best with tight budgets. “I love Melbourne, I have been to the festival before and this will be my fourth time. Kennedy being a closing film in itself is an honour. At festivals, it’s like you meet your own people, a community of filmmakers that all come together from South East Asia. It's great fun,” says the Gangs of Wasseypur director.
Anurag Kashyap also adds that a festival allows one to interact with the audience. “For a filmmaker like me, who makes movies with limited resources, with actors who are interested in it, and is not on paper like a big box office draw - when it gets selected for these major festivals it creates so much buzz around it with reviews and response. We have already gone to four festivals so far, this will be the fifth one, and we have more 15 lined up ahead,” he shares.
The director elaborates. “So with selection to these festivals and with the subsequent reviews it kind of replaces the expectations of having a star in the film. So then my limited resources become enough, producers also don’t feel (pressurized), and I also get a free hand. The moment my budget goes higher I have to cater like everybody else, play safe, and start doing things that are supposedly expected in mainstream films. Then it stops being my voice.”
Bombay Velvet
Anurag Kashyap further explains it with an example of the Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma starrer, Bombay Velvet. “We always keep going back to Bombay Velvet. It was a film that was written on paper, and a lot of things got cut because of the high budgets, right? A filmmaker friend of mine said, ‘Eventually you made your own film, it was an art house film, made at a commercial budget’. This is unfair for the studio and unfair for the producers. So if I am making a certain kind of film, I work best with limited resources and that's where the festivals come in a big way. It creates a certain kind of a valid noise. I enjoy traveling to festivals because I get to see other films too. Festivals become like me going to parties and a hanging out place,” Anurag Kashyap concludes.
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