Anurag Kashyap: Payal Kapadia will not be able to survive as a filmmaker in India
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has expressed his concern over the sustainability of Payal Kapadia’s career in India. He highlighted the difficulties faced by independent filmmakers in the country. He also criticised India’s lack of support for films that succeed at Cannes 2024.
Anurag Kashyap recently spoke about how India had no hand in the films that won and did well at Cannes 2024. Payal Kapadia, who won the award for her film ‘All We Imagine As Light’, was congratulated and lauded as the next big name to come from the country. However, acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has highlighted the irony of the situation and shared how it would be tough for a filmmaker like Kapadia to survive in India.
In an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in, Kashyap said that India has nothing to do with the four films selected for the award ceremony. He said that the country should stop taking credit for it. He said that if there was no international co-production, these films would never have been released.
“India hasn’t even given Payal Kapadia the 30 per cent discount she is entitled to on her film. We should stop taking credit for (her win). The kind of films she makes… it’s going to be difficult in this country,” he said. Sanctions cannot be imposed without foreign support (It could never have been made without the support of international funds). We have made films like ‘Lunchbox’, ‘Masaan’ or ‘Monsoon’, ‘Shootout’. We would not have been able to make these films without co-production support.”
Talking about the film business in the country, Kashyap said India is obsessed with numbers and that is the yardstick to judge a film. He said that this is a fatal yardstick for a creative person.Here, the movies are seen in the same way as to how much money is earned (Here films are rated based on their earnings) But there are other ways to make money. So Payal Kapadia cannot escape here As a filmmaker (she won’t be able to survive here as a filmmaker). It’s a very long and tough road, people don’t have any vision here because they are only limited by the box office.”
When asked what can be changed to empower such talented filmmakers in the country, the award-winning filmmaker said, “As of now, the business is controlled by businessmen who have different figures all the time. They are not at the same table. We need a transparent system. In China, you can go online and see how much business a film does, show by show, cinema by cinema and seat by seat. That transparency is missing here. Also, we have a population of 1.4 billion, and only 20,000 screens. How will cinema survive in India? Earlier NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) used to support films like ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’, but now the government is not supporting films like ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’. Now that too is closed (That too has been discontinued now) Everything is shown (It’s all a sham). Even subsidies are only promised, never paid.”
“I would like to reiterate that not a single film at Cannes was made with Indian money. Sandhya Suri’s ‘Santosh’ and Karan Kandharia’s ‘Sister Midnight’ were made through a British lottery. Payal Kapadia got support from France while Konstantin Bonazov’s ‘The Shameless’ was made with his own money and backed by an American production. India did not support a single film there, so we should stop taking credit,” Kashyap said.
Anurag Kashyap is all set to work on the Hoststar series ‘Bad Cop’ with Gulshan Devaiah who is seen in a double role in the Aditya Dutt directorial.
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