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.
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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.