"Disappointed And Disgusted": Anurag Kashyap Plans Leaving Mumbai For South
Anurag Kashyap is “disappointed and disgusted”, and the joy of filmmaking has been “sucked out”. He is planning to move out of Mumbai, and settle in South. He made the remarks during his recent interview with Hollywood Reporter India.
The Filmmaker has expressed his frustration with the current state of Bollywood, revealing plans to leave Mumbai and shift to the South for creative stimulation. In a candid interview, the filmmaker criticised the Hindi film industry’s obsession with profits, remakes, and star-making culture, which according to him stifles creativity and innovation.
“Now it is difficult for me to go out and experiment as it comes at a cost, which makes my producers think about profit and margins,” Kashyap told The Hollywood Reporter. “Right from the beginning, before the film starts, it becomes about how to sell it. So, the joy of filmmaking is sucked out. That’s why I want to move out of Mumbai next year. I am going to the South. I want to go where there is stimulation. Otherwise, I will die as an old man. I am so disappointed and disgusted by my own industry. I am disgusted by the mindset,” the director-actor said.
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Kashyap lamented how films with fresh and experimental narratives like Manjummel Boys, would never originate in Bollywood but would instead be remade if successful. “The mindset is to remake what’s already worked. They will not try anything new,” he said, underscoring the hesitancy in taking creative risks.
He also criticised the talent agencies for exploiting budding actors. He pointed out the nature of prioritising profit over nurturing genuine talent. “The first-generation actors and the really entitled ones are very painful to deal with. Nobody wants to act, they all want to be stars. The agency won’t make anybody a star, but the moment someone becomes a star, the agency makes money off them. The onus of finding talent is on you—you have to take a risk and firefight with 50 people. And when the film is made, the agency grabs them and turns them into a star. They will brainwash them and tell them what they need to do to become a star. They won’t send them to workshops but to the gym—it’s all glam-glam because they have to be massive stars”, he remarked.
Sharing an incident, Kashyap further accused agencies of creating a barrier between actors and filmmakers. He shared an incident about an actor who disappeared on the advice of his agency but later returned to him for career guidance after being dumped by the same agency. “This is what the agency does—they just make money off you. They aren’t invested in building new careers,” he said.
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“They don’t want new actors to grow. Instead of sending them to acting workshops, they will send them to gyms,” he said
He further expressed disappointment with actors he once considered friends. “One of my actors, whom I thought of as friends, ghost you because they want to be a certain way. That happens mostly here; it doesn’t happen in Malayalam cinema,” he noted, praising the collaborative spirit of the Southern film industry.
Anurag Kashyap last appeared onscreen in the Malayalam action thriller Rifle Club, helmed by Ashiq Abu, which was released in theatres on December 19, 2024.
