Anurag Kashyap talks, opening up with characteristic candour, of what the failure of Bombay Velvet has meant to him, the lessons he has learnt, and moving on.
The biggest Bollywood debacle of 2015 was, inarguably, ‘Bombay Velvet’, Anurag Kashyap’s much-publicized, much-anticipated period opus. The film harks back to the Prohibition era when Bombay’s dark dives and decadent night clubs acted like magnets for aspiring jazz musicians and wannabe mobsters,as well as venal politicians, greedy industrialists, and burgeoning land-sharks.
By rights- given the backing of a major studio (Fox Star), big production bucks (close to Rs 90 crore), and A list Bollywood stars (Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma)—‘Bombay Velvet’ should have been the definitive ’60s Bombay film. But it turned out to be a disaster. Audiences kept away in droves. The film flopped. And the filmmaker, reviled and derided, vanished from the scene. It was said that he had re-located (run away, jibed the unkind ones) to Paris, not having been able to deal with the aftermath.
He’s now resurfaced, looking gung-ho, having finished the principal shooting his new film, and having begun writing again. He talks, opening up with characteristic candour, of what the failure of ‘Bombay Velvet’ has meant to him, the lessons he has learnt, and moving on.
Excerpts:
Q: Bombay Velvet failed at the box office..
A: I have mostly made films that have been rejected by the audiences. None of my films have found acceptance immediately. This time (with `Bombay Velvet’) it affected me more than the ban(s) on ‘Paanch’ and ‘Black Friday’ affected me. It was all very confusing. It was like something I still can’t decipher. It was not just dismissed as a film that did not work. It was attacked. A lot of people who had lived through that time or knew the Bombay of that time went on Twitter liking the film and they were attacked.I’m saying you don’t like the film, you don’t like the film. But you don’t troll people who liked it. The first thing I learnt from `BV’ was– make your film and move on. In spite of that, I still edit the film in my head. I lived with it for 10 years. I wanted to re-create that world. It was something every studio wanted, everyone wanted. Till a day before (the release), everyone was confident. It (the failure) numbed everyone. No one (connected with the film) has talked to anyone since.
Q: Ranbir hasn’t spoken to you?
A: No one is talking about it. This was beyond hit and flop. This was attack. People were merciless.
Q: Are you talking of the critics or the audience?
A: I am talking of everyone on social networks.
Q: Was that responsible for the fate of your film?
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A: Yes. It was all so negative. No one went to see the film.
Q: Are you saying that a few tweets damaged your film?
A: I am saying that everyone attacked the film on social networks.
Q: You are saying that an older generation who knew Bombay of the time liked the film. That younger people didn’t like it. How hard is it for you to accept that the film was flawed?
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A: It was the film that I wanted to make. People didn’t buy the idea. For them it was the guy who made `Gangs’(of Wasseypur’) and `Ugly’..For them it was very difficult to separate the filmmaker from the film. People said it wasn’t my film. But everything in the film was a conscious choice.
Q: But was it the film you set out to make?
A: Editing and cutting down the film was..We didn’t know how to cut it down. I didn’t know how to cut it down. There was a lack of judgment, maybe because of my own vulnerability or maybe because of the cost of the film. Today I look back and feel I should have stuck to the length..In the process of making it pacier, the whole beginning did not register. People never got a chance to sink their teeth into the story. I had never made a film of this cost before. Negative publicity during the making put me very much on the back foot..No one put a gun to my head and said do it this way, not the studio, not Karan Johar (who has a part in the film). Anything that has gone wrong is absolutely and completely my fault. The onus was me. I failed.
Q: The phrase ‘failed filmmaker’ has been used for you many times. Why so much impact this time?
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A: Because BV was like a child you always wanted, and it was still born.
Q: There is still a strong palpable sense of hurt..
A: There is. There definitely is. I will be lying if I say I wasn’t hurt. Some reviews were personal. I didn’t know if I was being reviewed or the film. I’ve got a lot of bad reviews before, but this felt like a resentment. Then I met a senior filmmaker who said that it was bound to happen because people were just waiting for something like this..
Q: Your own brethren turning against you.. How did that make you feel?
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A: Filmmakers have told me that you have rocked the boat so many times. Just because you call a spade a spade, you must be punished. Now I am questioning who my friends are..Zoya and Farhan (Akhtar) have always stood by me. Reema (Kagti) was also very vocal (in support). I don’t know where the attack came from. But anyway, it happened. It is in the past. It is absolutely in the past. It is something to learn from. I know I’m not going to make myself so vulnerable anymore. I’ll make my movie. I’ll do it the hard way, like I used to. What it has done is liberated me in many ways. I will not second guess myself. I will go with my gut instinct. I’ll never spend so much money that the control is in someone else’s hands. And I will get away from negativity. I feel more confident when I travel. I can write.
Q: Was it about regaining lost self-esteem? Is that why you went away to Paris? Was it like running away?
A: The decision to leave had been taken before the film’s release. I had decided that I was not going out like a loser, but the non-stop negativity even while the shoot was on was impossible to take because you’re the one being singled out. It was not just `BV’. It was cumulative. Everything had happened in the last two-and-a-half years. My marriage broke up. Everything that had to go wrong with `BV’ happened while the film was on. I was completely broke, my bank accounts had been frozen because of some service tax issue..I was troubled and how, because I went and complained. I was dealing with people who didn’t care for me. Dealing with the censor board. Dealing with the bureaucracy .. Why did I need to live here? A magazine story which had been done several months back (which spoke about the move to Paris), came out the day the film released, so people just made that connection..
Q: So are you on the mend now?
A: I am in a very good space right now. I am writing. I have just finished shooting my new film (the intriguingly named `Raman Raghav Two Point Zero’, based on the life of a serial killer played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui). I wanted to work without restrictions, with people I haven’t worked with before. I’m lucky with my partners because they have freed me up to do what I should have in the first place. I am back to being selfish, and making films for myself. I have to see whether I still have it in me or not.
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Q: Are we going to see the old Anurag back?
A: I don’t know. There was a period when I felt that I had been vacuumed out. But the experience has given me a drive like never before. And anyway why should my persona define my work? Rather my work should define me..What I’m doing next should define me.
Q: Raman Raghav Two Point Zero. Is this Anurag Kashyap Two Point Zero too?
A: Absolutely. I’m Three Point Zero right now. (Laughs).
Anurag Kashyap talks, opening up with characteristic candour, of what the failure of Bombay Velvet has meant to him, the lessons he has learnt, and moving on.