Anurag Kashyap has ‘complicated relationship’ with violence: ‘If I see blood, I faint’

Starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in pivotal roles, the film revolves around an insomniac ex-cop, long thought to be dead, but still operates within a corrupt system, while looking for redemption.

Kashyap has revealed that the character Kennedy, played by Rahul Bhat, was actually written with South Indian superstar Chiyaan Vikram in mind.

“I only cast people who are totally available and who will give everything. I did not write Kennedy for Rahul Bhat. I had a specific actor in mind when I wrote this script, which is why the film was called Kennedy Project. It was Chiyaan Vikram. His real name is Kennedy (Kennedy John Victor). I reached out to him, but he never responded. I reached out to Rahul after that. His reaction and response was enthusiastic. He gave up eight months of his life for this character. His devotion, sincerity and total surrender to the role were just incredible,” Kashyap told Film Companion.

Subsequently, the 50-year-old filmmaker also opened up about his relationship with violence and said that it affects him a lot. “I have a very complicated relationship with violence. Violence affects me a lot. If I see blood in real life, I faint. If I see an accident, I faint. I am terrified of attending funerals. I have a very difficult relationship with violence, which is why in my films, the violence will be extreme, but off-screen. An exception to this is Gangs of Wasseypur.”

“I have always kept it (violence) outside. The point of impact has always been off screen… In Raman Raghav, Ugly, Paanch and so on… you only see the rage, but not the impact. My whole thing is, the audience’s imagination is so vivid, that it will be much more scarier. If we put it on screen, we are limiting it. When we don’t put it on screen, their imagination makes it scarier.”

Referring to the elements of violence in Kennedy, Kashyap said: “In this film, you are talking to a man who has become so used to violence that it has become a bodily function for him. It’s just an automated response. This is what he has become… this is what the society has become…”

“Here, I am not trying to lecture or anything. I am just telling a story When we live in his world, we see his loneliness and sadness… he is absolutely not a human being one should empathise with. Yet, you end up empathising with him, which is a very complicated thing. In the end, people are feeling like ‘I am not supposed to empathise with this man, but why am I feeling this?’ And that’s when people question themselves.”

Kashyap, along with Vikramaditya Motwane, are currently in France for the Cannes Festival. Motwane and Anurag, who walked the red carpet, struck a pose together before attending the premiere of director Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon.