Basil Joseph told Anurag Kashyap he ‘wasted two years of my life trying to do Shaktimaan’; asked, ‘How do you survive in Bollywood?’

“When I met Basil at an event, I asked him how he managed to take on such a wide variety of roles and responsibilities in just two or three years, doing films like Ponman and that too after directing Minnal Murali. Basil told me that he wasted two years of his life trying to do Shaktimaan. He even asked me, ‘God, how do you survive in that industry?’ He said exactly what I feel here. And I replied, ‘I couldn’t. That’s why I moved away.’ That man lost two whole years. He was telling stories about people while laughing,” he said during a chat with Chalchitra Talks.

Earlier this year, another rumour had also surfaced claiming that Pushpa star Allu Arjun had replaced Ranveer Singh as Shaktimaan. Denying the reports, Basil told senior film journalist Subhash K Jha, “Shaktimaan will be made only with Ranveer Singh. No one else is doing Shaktimaan. It is Ranveer Singh and no one else. Whoever is spreading rumours of his replacement clearly has their own agenda.”

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Having entered the film industry as an assistant to director Vineeth Sreenivasan, Basil Joseph also appeared in minor roles in a few films before making his directorial debut with Kunjiramayanam (2015), which emerged as a massive hit. He then went on to direct the sports comedy Godha (2017), starring Tovino Thomas and Wamiqa Gabbi, which turned out to be a blockbuster.

By that time, he had also transitioned into a full-fledged actor, taking on several roles simultaneously. Meanwhile, he directed Minnal Murali, which went on to become a global sensation.