Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently relocated to Bengaluru. He spoke about his move out of the city and his latest film Nishaanchi, which released in theatres today, in an interview with us.
Anurag Kashyap on relocating to Bengaluru, “There are more film discussions here, than box office discussions”; also OPENS UP on casting Aaishvary Thackeray in Nishaanchi, “I needed a lot of dedication”
Why have you relocated to Bengaluru?
I have relocated to Bengaluru and it has really changed my life, it has changed my health, energy. I have more time to write, more time to myself, away from the film industry in Mumbai that always pulls me down and would make me frustrated. So all those negative forces are gone from inside because I don’t interact with (the) industry anymore, until when my film is ready. I have Ranjan Singh who I partner with, I have no company. I work alone and when there is no company, there is no pressure of making a big company.
So is this Anurag Kashyap Reloaded?
I am back to how I used to be during my struggling days and that I will work alone as a director, as a writer. Sometimes, I do acting in South India and there I get more camaraderie, there are more film discussions than box office discussions. There are talks about storytelling. There are many writers here. (By) writers, I mean novelists; they all live in Bengaluru.
So it is a creative community out there?
Yes, there are interactions with them. Many such people who have relocated to Bangalore; a creative collaboration is very good there. Bengaluru has done a lot of good to me and it’s very conducive to creativity. Because of fun, because of time, because people don’t come and waste your time when there is no meeting. People don’t come to seek validation. Otherwise, I used to spend half of my energy in that, and there are wide roads, there are pavements. So, I can walk on the road. So, I get these morning walks, I get my exercise, I get my writing time, I’m very happy in Bengaluru.
Your new film Nishaanchi is like your rebirth
You liked it? It was very beautiful, everything else is connected organically. I was so sick, so scared, I too, literally, came back from the grave. I felt like that while doing my last film Kennedy, and after that, when I was in the right state of mind, then Nishaanchi was made.
Nishaanchi is homage to some of the greatest Hindi films like Ganga Jumna, Deewaar
You are right. Nishaanchi does come from my childhood of watching Deewar, Ganga Jamuna, Mother India, everything; all of that is somewhere reflected in the film and I had this story of the mother and her twins for a long time. One day, we started writing the opening scene; it was done in 2016 while we were we were working on Mukkabaaz. We were simultaneously working on Nishaanchi because there was a lot of pressure about why do I keep working with newcomers after Bombay Velvet and so we wrote Nishaanchi.
So you were going to cast a star in Nishaanchi?
Initially, I had Sushant Singh Rajput in mind and he had said yes and then he got two films from Dharma Productions, Drive and I think Dil Bechara and he disappeared and then I put the script aside till I could find a new actor.
Aaishvary Thackeray was given the double role because of the family he belonged to?
I did not even know Aaishvary as a Thackeray in the beginning, in the sense that I saw his showreel in which he had done monologues and one of the monologues he had done was from Shool; Manoj Bajpayee’s last monologue which he had written himself and I thought that this boy is from North India, Bihar, has amazing eyes, his screen presence is very good.
So initially you thought Aaishvary Thackeray was a Bihari because of the way he spoke the Bihari dialect?
Before meeting him, I got to know that he is a Thackeray and a Maharashtrian. Then I said that I don’t know if you have plans of being launched or whatever it is, I will need to meet your family, so first read the script. He read the script, he was excited to do it. I told him I needed to make this film uninterrupted and he will have to become a ‘Kanpuriya.’
Was Aaishvary’s mother involved in the casting?
I met his mother Smitaji and I told her that if he is doing this film, if you have any plan to launch him or anything, you tell me because I can’t do this film without her son’s complete attention. I needed a lot of dedication. Aaishvary said that I don’t want to do anything else, I want to do this only and then he came on board.
Did the surname come in the way at any time?
Initially, we were not putting his surname in the film, he was just supposed to be called Aaishvary. But the thing is, it got leaked in the media and everybody knew he is doing this film. So, then we thought we might as well use the surname. There was no plan to use the surname, there was no pressure from the family and family did not come in the way at all. Aaishvary then gave me 3-4 years of his life. He went to Kanpur with his co-star Vedika Pinto and they lived in Kanpur, they picked up the attitude, the language, everything. They gave it a lot of time; they were all there.
More Pages: Nishaanchi Box Office Collection , Nishaanchi Movie Review
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