Anurag Kashyap calls Kennedy’s Cannes premiere ‘lowest point’: ‘It was our mistake’

Kashyap explained that while the response on the surface appeared enthusiastic, he personally felt something was off with the screening, particularly with its sound. “So, that notwithstanding, I felt a dip because because the whole film for me is like an opera. And we felt something was wrong technically,” he said. Recalling the moment, he added, “So the first person to walk out of the screening in Cannes was me. I stepped out because I needed to go to the washroom and just wash my face, and I was dealing with it. And then Kunal, who works with me, he just said, ‘We need to remix the film.’”

‘Lowest point was the premiere screening’

The filmmaker also reflected on the initial response to Kennedy at Cannes and admitted that, in hindsight, he felt the film may not have been suited for such a high-profile international premiere. According to Kashyap, the audience largely approached the film expecting a conventional genre thriller and did not have the political context necessary to understand what the film was attempting to say.

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“And then, when the response came out from Cannes, we also realised it’s not a film that should have premiered at such a big venue internationally. Obviously, the festival selection committee, they know politically what’s going in India. But the genre film audience doesn’t understand that. They don’t know that. They have come to see a horror or a thriller. They thought we were making a John Wick, an Indian John Wick. They had no political reference point for the film. They didn’t understand the politics of it. They didn’t get it, or they don’t care about it simply because they have come to see a genre film. So that was very heartbreaking.”

Kashyap went on to describe the premiere as the lowest point of the Cannes experience, while also taking responsibility for what went wrong. “The lowest point was the premiere screening. And it was not anybody’s mistake. It’s our mistake,” he said. He also pointed out another difference between Cannes and several other film festivals. “And also, in Cannes, you don’t do Q&A with the audience. Every other festival, there’s Q&A. People get to ask you questions. You are able to give a context politically of the film to the audience, and that makes a massive difference.”

Kashyap last directed Bandar, starring Bobby Deol.