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In Conversation with Anurag Kashyap

Film festivals can be exhausting. They can also be rewarding. Extremely rewarding. I’ve never been to a film festival before. Yesterday was my first. And I realized what I had been missing.

If you are a movie fanatic who’s attended film festivals, you’ll quite surely know what my experience may have been. It’s like stepping in a whole new world. Your world. People around engaged in conversations about movies, movies and movies. You are home. You are at peace. You are free to be you, simply you.

[Anurag Kashyap. He was walking in for the screening of "Paanch", ran into him at the door, we started chatting, shocked that he reads Desi Train movie reviews... took this pic. This morning I check the pic and realized how awful I look. Cut myself out... I was on the right]

After an aggressive round of documentaries earlier during the day, you walk towards the cafe, for some rest. The first round of Newcastle relaxes you. The place is buzzing with energy, with activity. A bunch of volunteers are sprinkled all over the place. Names of Famous film and theater personalities are making the rounds in the open air cafe. Then theater director Firoz Khan (not to be mixed with Fardeen Khan’s father) walks into the cafe with Sabu Cyril (I may be wrong here).

Its almost time for the event of the day. The screening of Anurag Kashyap’s “Paanch”. His first as a director.

I got to meet Anurag Kashyap while hanging around the aisles of the screening hall. As mentioned in the last post, I mentioned to him that I had awarded him the unluckiest genius in Bollywood, and he shot back asking if I was from Desi Train (I had not mentioned the site name to him as yet). It was fun and well… honestly, an ego booster to know that Kashyap reads the movie reviews and opinions at the Desi Train, courtesy a famous Bollywood actress who introduced him to my blog. Don’t know who that actress is. Whoever you are, if you are reading this, Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for leading Anurag to this blog. (Guys - I can be sensitive too)

We spent a few minutes before the movie and after movie ended, where I got to speak to him one on one. There was also a question answer session after the movie “Paanch”

Following is a mix of Anurag’s interaction with the audience and his one on one discussion with me. I had to leave some stuff out purely because the speed at which I was taking notes made my handwriting fairly illegible.

On the making of Paanch

Paanch was written about 12 years ago, but he could not find anyone to finance the movie. The original version of Paanch, had Kay Kay’s character to be an imaginary one. None of those who read it, actually understood it. Then “Fight Club” (Brad Pitt) was released where Tyler Durden was an imaginary character in the movie. That’s the time when producers grasped what Kay Kay’s character was about.

But now Anurag did not want to make it. It would seem like a copy. (hear hear!!!) So Paanch was rewritten by him.

Now all the producers he went to found the ending very bleak. So Anurag rewrote it again. It took about 4 -5 rewrites before Tutu Sharma (Padmini Kolhapure’s husband and brother is law of Tejaswini Kolhapure who acts in Paanch) decided to back Anurag and produce the movie.

Somewhere around the time before Tutu Sharma picked up Paanch, Ram Gopal Varma was supposed to produce Paanch for Kashyap. On one condition : Write Satya for RGV after which he’ll produce Paanch for Anurag. So Anurag went about writing Satya which was made and released. Unfortunately RGV’s plan to make Paanch after Satya “fizzled out”.

The opening sequences while the titles are played have a jerky, vibrating and an energetic feel. About 4000 to 5000 stills of various parts of Bombay were taken and they were run one after another to achieve the desired effect.

The sets of Paanch were lit up by normal bulbs and tubelights to give it a realistic effect.

On the problems faced while making Paanch

Paanch’s shooting started 7 years after Anurag first wrote the script. But things weren’t smooth even after the shooting started. The financers objected to the bleak and depressing nature of the house where much of the movie was shot in. They objected to the depressing environment, the muriels on the walls, and other things. Flow of cash stopped and the movie shoot had to take a break till fresh flow of finance was turned on.

Then Tutu Sharma, the producer, left Paanch aside, and went on to make other bigger commercial movies. That resulted in more stoppages in shooting Paanch.

In the end, Paach was ready for release in the year 2000.

On songs in Paanch

The one prime condition set by financers to back this movie was : it should have songs.

Since the movie is based on a rock band, it was bound to have songs. Anurag had initially planned to have short snippets of songs (a couple of lines and cut to the next scene). But when the financers put in the condition of having complete songs in the movie, Anurag out of pure frustration pumped in five songs right in the beginning of the movie to satisfy the financers. The five songs later got reduced to three.

The last song in the movie was not directed by Anurag. According to him, the whole movie was made for an amount of One Crore and Twenty Lakhs (Rupees). When the producers decided to add another song towards the end of the movie, nine months after the movie was completed, they hired someone else to direct it. The money spent on just the last song was Seventy Lakhs.

On the cast and crew of Paanch

Most of them were first timers. Anurag was a theater actor before he came into movies. In Anurag’s own words “Kay Kay Menon, was my guru/teacher in theater. Kay Kay went through a lot of shit before reaching where he is today”. According to Anurag, Kay Kay would have been “in a completely different position in Bollywood” had Paanch released on time, even though he is now well known because of movies like Sarkar and other commercial hits.

The cinematographer of Parineeta began his movie career with Paanch.

Other actors too have moved on and now have featured in various projects in movies and television.

On the reasons why the Censors banned Paanch

It may sound very strange but following are the reasons the Censor Board of India gave Anurag, on why they could not pass Paanch.

- Too much hate in the movie. It is too stark. Not good to show to an Indian audience.
- Drug usage shown in the movie. The Indian public does not do drugs. Not good to show it.
- You can’t shoot in such a dim light. Its bad for the viewers’ eyes.
- This movie has no entertainment value.

Before Paanch

There was desperation and frustration with Bollywood. Anurag wanted to make movies but no one was interested in a non-entity. His desperation to make movies and earn an income led to him making various compromises courtesy the producers and financers.

On his other projects

Among the recent releases, he has written “Water” and “Mixed Doubles”.

Most of his time is spent doing films for people who are new and have no money (his own words).

On the other hand he’s offered obscene amounts of money by producers who approach him with Hollywood and Asian DVDs. They simply want Anurag to write copies of the originals.

Two of the copies he wrote for producers was “Main Aisa He Hoon” and “Kaante”

On the need for original writers in Bollywood

Bollywood does have many original writers. There is no shortage of talent. The problem is they have no “backing” and no financers who want to invest in new comers.

On where he learnt writing and directing

His main source for learning writing and directing was… movies and Batman comics. He did mention a few illustrators of comics, but I could not catch their names.

Anurag may have the largest personal DVD collection in India.

On how to write and direct movies

There is no definite structure he follows. “Just write” is his advice to writers.

He is a painter and he plays with space on the sets. He does not follow and adhere to any formal shot division planning.

On the observation that acting is of the highest quality in his directed movies, in Anurag’s own words “Instead of the actor performing for the camera, I let the camera capture the people…”

Well, that’s all I have on Anurag Kashyap. There were a few other things he talked about in the one on one discussion I had with him, but they were his very personal views and I would like to avoid putting them up here.

I was planning to write a review on Paanch after this, but am in a bind. I’m not sure if I should review an unreleased movie. It may not be right towards Anurag and the producers of Paanch to have my views out in the open on an unreleased product. What do you think …?