Anurag Kashyap ‘got a message’ from people behind major Bollywood hit, was told to keep his ‘genuine praise’ for the film to himself: ‘My jaw dropped’

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Recalling the incident that led him to snap, he said, “Once, after watching a first-day-first-show of a very big film, I came out and praised it. It was genuine. I rarely do this. I got a message from their team telling me not to talk about the film, because they felt if I praise it, people would assume it’s a political film. My jaw dropped. I stopped interacting after that… What is left for me to say. This industry enjoys watching others fail. They didn’t even want genuine praise, because it was coming from me. I want to stay away from this insecurity. I’m a very secure man. That was the moment that made me realise I’d be happier away from this place.”

Anurag has since moved to Bengaluru, and has said that he feels much happier being among people who genuinely respect cinema. Anurag, who slipped into a depression after his passion project Maximum City was canceled by Netflix, said that he doesn’t have ‘the luxury’ to sit at home and recover from his illnesses, because he works on smaller-scale projects that don’t generate much profit for him. “I didn’t have the luxury to heal; I had to work simultaneously. That’s why I moved away, and the moment I left the city, my life changed,” he said.

While Anurag didn’t reveal the name of the film he’d praised, in 2023, he appeared in a paparazzi video praising Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan after catching it on day one of release. He said, “Shah Rukh Khan itna haseen, itna sundar pehle kabhi laga nahi. Toh hum toh usko dekhne aaye the aur dil khush ho gaya. Aur itna khatarnaka action hai, Shah Rukh ke liye pehli baar aisa role hai. Mujhe nahi lagta unhone is tarah ka action pehle kiya hai.Kya body banayi hai.”

He also praised director Sandeep Reddy Vanga after the success of Animal, and even got together with him for a chat. Anurag has only had positive things to say about Shah Rukh since then, and has also described him as the ‘man with the strongest spine’ in the film industry. Praising Pathaan for breathing new life into the Hindi film industry after a particularly difficult period, Anurag had told mid-day, “People are coming back to cinema and people are coming back and dancing on screen. People are euphoric about the movie. There is euphoria and this euphoria is beautiful. This euphoria was missing. This euphoria is also a socio-political euphoria, it is like making a statement.”

Talking about his decision to leave Mumbai, Anurag said recently in an interview with Sudhir Srinivasan, “Hindi filmmakers have been avoiding me, because they think I’m bad new, because they think I have no filter and I talk. They think that if they get associated with me, they might not get (to work with) some studio or somebody else will get upset.” Besides his new film Nishaanchi, which will be released in theatres on September 19, two films that Anurag executive produced — Bad Girl and Jugnuma — were also released recently.