Anurag Kashyap says Pathaan success has ‘exposed desperation’ of ‘right wing’ trolls: ‘They are all naked now’

The film also arrived in cinema halls when the narrative that Bollywood is finished and South cinema has taken over was at its peak. But Kashyap tells indianexpress.com that the success of Pathaan feels sweet, and is a reminder that people will always step out for anticipated films.

“The success of Pathaan is not just important but it has exposed the desperation with which these trolls were at it. Even after all the numbers, some people are at it, trying to find a reason to run it down. They have become completely naked,” the filmmaker shares.

Kashyap says he has seen Twitter pages that are trying to dig through Pathaan and putting out tweets claiming the film has “misinformation”, but the ticket-buying audience has given an answer.

“They are so desperate, trying to say all kinds of things like, ‘Don’t watch, this has misinformation’ but you know what, they are all ‘nange’ (naked) now. It is clear now more than ever that the ones who run the agenda are not people, it is invested right wing trolls. People came out with love and a lot of it. But they want to create this misinformation. It is just manufactured.”

Kashyap is currently gearing up for the release of his latest Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, billed as an “ode to modern love.” The romantic musical drama is led by actors Alaya F and debutant Karan Mehta.

Kashyap says the times are such that people will flock to theatres to watch a big film or a sequel of an anticipated film, beyond the engineered hate on social media. The only causality will be mid-sized original Hindi films, which are struggling to find audience despite glowing reviews.

“The other kind of cinema, which needs word of mouth, Hindi cinema doesn’t have that space, but regional films do. They first get to make noise in their own region and then we hear about it and then they travel here. It gets the benefit of the word of mouth. Hindi films don’t have the bandwidth of word of mouth because by the time it builds….

“Like An Action Hero, what a good film! But people didn’t see it. How can An Action Hero be the least seen Ayushmann Khurrana film? Now it will be massive on OTT, people will discover it big time. It doesn’t make me sad, but these are just the times,” he adds.

Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat is set to open in cinemas on February 3.