My movies were never a hit: Anurag Kashyap

Eminent Bollywood Anurag Kashyap of Dev D fame says his movies were never a hit and claims that he has chosen freedom over money to make movies.
 
Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day proramme in Delhi on Sunday, Kashyap said, “My movies have never been a hit, but I have received good reviews. In this industry one needs to choose between freedom and money. Freedom to make movies of one’s choice and money from making movies based on market demands. I have chosen freedom.”

On the debate among the intelligentsia that Indian Cinema does not make movies on villages, director of Pinjar and scriptwriter of the television soap Chanakya, Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi, said, “Money comes from multiplexes…. Until and unless established and big names like Aamir Khan work for movies based on village, it is difficult for us to make movies under such market conditions.”

Along with the corporate pressure, Anurag said, it is also the audience’s perspective that becomes a restrain to make movies on villages. “Corporate spends money only when they see profit and not the story and so we need audience. When the people come to know that the movie is on history or literature, there is a stereotyping that it will be boring and it resists the filmmaker to take risk.”

To this, Raghuvendra Singh, a journalist from Filmfare magazine, has altogether a different understanding of the crisis. He said, “We cannot expect from directors like Karan Johar to make a village based movie, whose knowledge of village is restricted to the movies as seen in Bollywood. It is the writer who needs to take the initiative and bring to the limelight.”

Swananda Kirkire, lyricist and playback singer said, “The industry looks forward to make movies from the market’s outlook, but in the run they forget that every movie has a unique essence. Till the time movies like Paan Singh Tomar are made, the market cannot stop its success.”

Several eminent personalities from the industry like Sanjay Chauhan, Dr. Dinesh Kumar Shukl, Anuranjan Jha, also participated in the debate session at Scope Complex in New Delhi.