GOW will be my most profitable venture ever – Anurag Kashyap Part 2

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart… For all his creative genius, Anurag Kashyap could never be described as a maverick director. But today when I sit with him and zoom in his eyes, I see a different Anurag Kashyap. He understands the nature of the film industry. He knows how movies are bought and sold. He knows the business….now. As his Gangs Of Wasseypur is a few weeks away from the worldwide release, all he is waiting for is his first big smash hit at the BO. ‘Liberal’ has become a dirty word in Bollywood & it’s been demonised to a terrifying degree. Kashyap knows it better than all of us. Anurag chooses the right word instead – ‘main-stream, commercial, masala entertainer’. Now you’re talking Mr Director! Part 2 of my conversation with Anurag Kashyap continues…

“When I meet Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom, I realise their work culture and humility that far surpasses ours”
I don’t grasp technicalities when I meet directors or producers from the West. What I grasp is their humility. When I go to London and call Danny Boyle, he tells me that he can’t meet me today because he needs to fix a leak in his house. Out here, I need to call a plumber. When I meet Michael Winterbottom, and his eleven member crew, I learnt that he is carrying his own monitor. The cameraman carries his own camera, he doesn’t have five attendants. The art director doesn’t have assistant and sweeps the floor and puts a nail on the wall by himself. I’ve realised their work culture and their humility. That’s what I grasp from them.

“Manoj is so dedicated that he starts living the role on and off the sets”
While we were writing Gangs Of Wasseypur and the Sardar Khan character, I knew it was Manoj Bajpayee who’ll play this role and no one else. The only question I faced was – Will he shave his head? He immediately agreed. He is quite an incredible actor. He starts living the role off and on the sets. If you see the sequences in the song ‘O Womaniya’, when he is taking is bath, what people couldn’t see is that he had hundred and four degree fever. He will do the shot and then get wrapped up in a towel. He is a dedicated actor and always was.

“Gangs Of Wasseypur will be my most profitable venture ever”
Bollywood is a star driven industry but anything that has potential in it will work. It has more possibility today. Five years ago, there was no guarantee that such films will work. Today I feel Black Friday, Paanch and Gulaal could’ve worked better at the box office if released this year. No Smoking done smartly back then would’ve recovered the money. But it was sold three times higher than the actual cost of the film. I’ve learnt the business over the years and I am confident that Gangs Of Wasseypur will be my most profitable venture ever.

“There was no distributional support for these good movies back then and even now a few films face the same trauma”
There was no distributional support for these good movies back then and even now a few films face the same trauma only because there is no star in the film and even if there is a star, it’s still stuck in a rut. Kahaani was floating around for a long time. Paan Singh Tomar was made and ready since two and a half years. Thanks to UTV SpotBoy and Viacom 18 that has changed.

“I first spotted Nawazuddin in John Mathew Mathan’s Sarfarosh”
Nawazuddin has been at it for a very long time and it’s just that all his films are collected together and the time has come that all these movies are working. His film Patang was ready two years ago and it’s releasing now. We’ve worked together in Black Friday and I first spotted him in Sarfarosh. He played one of the guys in the Police Station who cracks down and cries. I said, “Wow! What a junior artist”. He is quite an invisible person on the street walking. But on screen, he can be anybody you want to see. He has that fire in him that’s scorching on screen. There aren’t many his types when it comes to acting.

“I needed Richa for the role and no one else”
Richa Chadda’s audition that she did for Dev D was still stuck in my mind and I knew that she would pull off this role in Wasseypur. She understood the milieu and fitted in the role very well. I needed Richa for the role and no one else. It had to be her. Thanks to my casting director Mukesh Chhabra who has done a wonderful job in getting all actors together for my movie.