Smoking GUN

Only Anurag Kashyap can be plucky enough to get John Abraham and Ranvir Shorey to play 12-year-olds in No Smoking and then call the scene his tribute to saas-bahu serials

His black friday released to critical acclaim early this year and he is now gearing up for the world premiere of No Smoking at the forthcoming Rome Film Festival on October 24. Writer-director Anurag Kashyap on films, mentor Ram Gopal Varma, reinterpreting the 8216;worst piece of literature8217; that8217;s Devdas and more8230;

What do international film festivals and awards mean to you? Did you feel slighted when Black Friday wasn8217;t considered for the Oscars?
Cash awards mean a lot to me. It helps me travel and buy DVDs. It feels good to go on to the stage and receive an award. But somehow, the aftertaste of Indian awards isn8217;t very good. The only function I attended was when I won an award for Satya. When I won it and came backstage, somebody told me how they had to fight to get it for me. I said, 8220;Listen, I deserved it and that8217;s why I got it.8221; But that experience killed my enthusiasm and I haven8217;t been to a single Indian award function since then.
As for this fight over the Oscar nomination, I think it8217;s carrying it a bit too far. Bollywood should at least make a film that can compete at the Asian or even the pan-Indian level and then think about the Oscars. Our biggest drawback is that our films are not about us in the first place.

Is No Smoking an anti-smoking campaign?
The film has many layers. It8217;s an anti-smoking film, but not a direct social message. Smoking is a metaphor in the film, which has a mix of the thriller, comedy and horror genres. It works in a very Kafkaesque way. It8217;s about a man who8217;s arrogant and has everything in life8212;a flourishing business, a penthouse, his sweetheart for a wife. But he is also a chain-smoker and is a bit of a narcissist. How he affects the lives of those around him and how he is conned into submitting himself into a rehab programme run by a quack called Baba Bangali is the crux of the story.

In the film, John Abraham and Ranvir Shorey play 12-year-olds in a flashback scene about their first puff. How did you pull it off?
The flashback sequence is called Kyunki Bachpan Bhi Kabhie Naughty Tha 8230; and is my tribute to Balaji Telefilms. If 20-year-olds can play grandfathers and grandmothers in these soaps, then why can8217;t 24-year-olds play 12-year-olds?

Your directorial debut Paanch is yet to be released. Black Friday was also delayed by three years. How do you maintain sanity living with deferred dreams?
It8217;s a very difficult transition. The first time was the toughest. I took to the bottle from being a teetotaller and gained 20 kg and lots of depression. But the Paanch experience came in handy for Black Friday. The day it was ready, I didn8217;t even wait for the censorship certificate and started working on my next project. These days, I just make my films and move on. nbsp;

Who or what are your inspirations?
My biggest influences have been Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Darren Aronofsky, the Coen brothers and the German-Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin, who I think should win the best foreign Oscar this year. Watching cinema from all over the world inspire me. They keep reminding you that there8217;s honesty in what you are watching and how corrupt you are in comparison. nbsp;

You are increasingly seen as a crusading voice for independent cinema and its makers. Does this movement have a future in India?
It8217;s a pity that though we call ourselves a film industry, we don8217;t act like one. We are very clannish and are dominated by film families. It8217;s only an outsider who can bring in change. I stand up and talk on behalf of everybody. I don8217;t need to, but I do. A lot of independent films came and didn8217;t do very well in the recent past. Dil Dosti Etc was ok, Loins of Punjab did well, Johny Gaddar was average, Manorama Six Feet Under didn8217;t work. But what8217;s happening now is similar to the 1857 Mutiny. Without the mutiny, there would have been no Independence. These films are Hindi cinema8217;s mutiny; independence will come later.

Story continues below this ad

What8217;s next?
I am working on an animation film, Hanuman Returns, that will release sometime in December. By March, Gulal and Dev D will be ready.

You are re-interpreting Devdas with Dev D. What is it about the classic that attracts filmmakers?
I don8217;t know about others, but I think Devdas is the worst piece of literature in Indian history. It is Saratchandra8217;s worst novel and is pathetic, but it8217;s also applicable. As a nation, we love songs like Ghunghroo ki tarah bajta hi raha8230; and Dost dost na raha, pyar pyar na raha8230; We wallow in self-pity and use it as an excuse to not do anything about it. Devdas suffers from the same problem. I hate the book, but because it8217;s applicable, I have rewritten it. My film retains all its original characters but I just don8217;t contemporise them, I take the classic to an entirely different zone. For the modern-day Devdas, it8217;s more of a journey of self-discovery than self-destruction.

You started your career with Ram Gopal Varma, but said you can8217;t relate to his kind of cinema anymore.
That kind of fall happens when the rebel becomes a conformist. Ramu was the original rebel and then he became the system. The other day Mahesh Bhatt told me, 8216;Anurag you are finished.8217; I asked him why and he said, 8216;Because people don8217;t appreciate you; they have accepted you.8217; A poet is finished the day he is accepted. There lies the catch. It8217;s not easy. Why only Ramu, it can happen to anybody, even me.