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September 12, 2005
THE CURSE OF ANURAG KASHYAP
Indian director, Anurag Kashyap (not to be confused with National Spelling Bee Champion, Anurag Kashyap), seems to be jinxed. He wrote several movies for Ram Gopal Varma, including the now-classic SATYA, but his directorial debut, PAANCH (2000), hasn't been released due to problems with its subject matter. By all accounts it's a pitch-dark, horror-movie-influenced noir film and that wasn't something that anyone was going to release.
His second movie, BLACK FRIDAY, is a grueling investigation of the 1993 Mumbai bombings which is one of the most intensive, and exhausting, motion picture investigations of terrorism ever made. Unfortunately, the Bombay High Court ruled that it can't be released until a verdict is reached in the case, and that may take years. It has played numerous film festivals in the meantime and earned rave reviews. There's also been talk of turning the movie into a TV series.
This interview with Anurag talks about his frustration with the case, his new movie GULAL (a sci fi film) and his pro-piracy position.
Some folks have said that Anurag is cursed, but now there may be hope as producer Boney Kapoor picks up the rights to PAANCH and says he's going to release it.
September 12, 2005 at 09:03 AM in News | Permalink
Comments
Congratulations on posting such an honest article about a great director. keep up the good work guys.
one more thing, I want to write to Anurag. can you help me in getting his email ID?
Posted by: Naren | Nov 21, 2005 10:18:23 PM
Just watched the pirated vcd of Black Friday. I firmly opine that Black Friday should be released. Its a superbly paced awesome movie which deserves box-office recogniton. The sensitive subject has been delicately treated, maintaning fine balance with different viewpoints and yet without any bias. Rockin performances by KayKay, aditya srivastav (as badshah khan), pawan malhotra (as tiger menon) and the amazing resemblance of actor vijay maurya to dawood ibrahim. Hats off to director Anurag Kashyap for making this brave original cinematic attempt. Its realism to the core (with some real mayhem footage used in between). The sad thing is that it hasnt seen a theatrical release in india. After all, in a democratic country like india, every film director should be given the creative freedom to make movies on any subject he wants to. The most important thing is to get the idea through in the audiences minds. If people are interested in the movie, they should watch it; if they dont like, they shouldnt watch the movie itself. Just critizing some movie sitting in bedroom holds no ground. Ridiculously this very censor board passes raunchy softcore flicks just because its a yash chopra production. Perhaps, with realeases of offbeat films like Family, Being Cyrus, Don, Black Friday or Paanch, it would create a popular non-stereotyped, dark film genre.
Posted by: vibhoo | Apr 18, 2006 11:09:44 AM
Hi
I am the biggest fan of Anurag kashyap. The way he directed Black Friday is a great work i've ever seen. I would like meet him if you can help me. I would like to be a part of his project to learn things from Anurag. Please help me meeting him
Posted by: Abhijit | Sep 4, 2006 1:39:33 PM
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