Creators in India can’t do anything ‘remotely political’: Anurag

NEW DELHI: It is a great time for creators in India to experiment with the long-form storytelling, said writer-filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who believes artistes are trying to design content at a time where anyone can be ‘easily offended at anything’.

Describing the current creative state in the country as ‘restrictive’, the acclaimed director said politics and religion are some of the themes on the list of ‘big no’s’.

“I like long-form storytelling and I have been working on lots of stuff, but we are also dealing with a kind of atmosphere where one is very restricted in the kind of drama that you can do. Right now, we cannot do anything remotely political or remotely deals with religion. There are lots of big no’s,” Kashyap said during a discussion following the BFI screening of ‘Dobaaraa’ in London recently.

Despite the restrictive environment, the director said it was a great time to tell longform and experimental stories.

“And big no’s not because anyone has said that you cannot do that. It’s because everybody is living in an atmosphere where they don’t know how anybody is going to react. Right now, we are very fragile and we are very easily offended by anything. So, for creators in India, yes, it’s a great time to create long-form storytelling and lots of new experimental stuff, but at the same time, we are walking a very thin line,” Kashyap added.

Actors Taapsee Pannu and Pavail Gulati, the stars of ‘Dobaaraa’ also joined the actor in the conversation with film scholar Rachel Dwyer.

Kashyap also talked about his most popular movie ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, which was completed 10 years of its release last week.

Calling the two-part gangster drama film franchise his ‘biggest undoing’, the director said he hopes ‘Dobaara’ goes on to do ‘something different’.

“I don’t want to think of ‘Wasseypur’ because it has been my biggest undoing. A lot of small-town underworlds, crime films and series have come out since then. Some of them are really very good. It’s not that it wasn’t there before. There was ‘Omkara’, ‘The Bandit Queen’ and other films that were done before. ‘Wasseypur’ is like a bane for me. Everybody wants me to keep doing the same thing. I hope people stop expecting a ‘Wasseypur’ from me and start asking for something more,” he added.

‘Dobaara’ is the Hindi remake of ‘Mirage’.