Anurag Kashyap says Netflix shelving Maximum City led to heart attack, rehab: ‘They see India as a dumping ground’

Maximum City’s cancellation led to a ‘massive implosion’

Speaking about the experience, Kashyap told Mid-Day India the way the project was handled left him devastated.
“During the lockdown, I was writing Maximum City. They had already decided after reading part one that this cannot be made; it would be very difficult. But nobody had the courage to come and tell me. I kept writing and spent so much time on it. My team knew, they had been informed, but they didn’t tell me. So imagine giving two years to something and getting emotionally attached to it. I had a massive implosion,” he said.

Kashyap added that he had begun work on the series only after Netflix greenlit the project, but later discovered that many of the executives who approved it had not even read the original book.

“I started working on Maximum City only after it was greenlit. My first question to everybody at Netflix was: have you read the book? They all said yes. Nobody had read the book. It started with a lie. You have greenlit it, you have given basic money for preparation, and then after reading the script you tell me, ‘This cannot be done,’ when my script was very authentic to the book. At that time, I used to think of Netflix as my home. For me, if they had greenlit something, it meant they were going to make it. The way they handled it caused a massive implosion inside me.”

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‘I got a heart attack’

The emotional shock, he said, soon manifested physically. “The first thing I got was a heart attack. I got a stent and was put on blood thinners. I couldn’t deal with it, and I reacted badly to vaccines — I developed severe asthma. I was put on steroids, and steroids keep you awake and restless, so I started drinking. It was a combination of many things. My daughter had a breakdown looking at me and asked me to go to rehab, so I went.”

His time in rehabilitation brought its own complications. Kashyap recalled suffering a serious ligament injury while there, which worsened over time. “In rehab, I got a ligament tear in my right leg, which got worse because neither I nor the rehab staff realised it in time. It kept getting worse and I was in so much pain. I left the rehab and went to a doctor, who told me I had ruined it. I could barely walk. Surgery was not possible because of the blood thinners. I was lying in bed with my legs up — dealing with asthma, steroids, blood thinners.”

Despite the difficult phase, Kashyap says he has now moved on and no longer holds resentment over what happened.
“I am very happy now. I have in my mind forgiven everyone. To each his own, everyone has consequences. I am very happy since I left Mumbai.” Anurag currently lives in Bengaluru.

‘Netflix knows they are making crap’

During the conversation, Kashyap also spoke about how the streaming ecosystem in India has changed since platforms like Netflix first entered the market. According to him, streaming services initially offered a home for bold, independent storytelling, but their priorities have since shifted.

“Somebody very senior from Silicon Valley said that India is just a dumping ground. What he meant was that all they want is more subscribers. They only want subscribers — they want to maximise them. They don’t want quality. In the beginning, it wasn’t like this because they were trying to break into the market. I was told to my face: we want subscribers, we don’t want you to be complex and intelligent.”

According to Kashyap, this shift has altered the type of content platforms prioritise. “Netflix knows they are making crap because they are surviving on subscription and stock value. So instead of increasing their level of content, they aim to increase the subscribers.”

Kashyap was one of the earliest filmmakers to collaborate with Netflix India during its initial push into original Indian programming, with Sacred Games.