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Photo: Anu Pushkarna

Indulgent papa Anurag Kashyap made The Return of Hanuman for his daughter

It’s one of the things that many people now say of Kashyap: that genre seems of no importance to him, and he is only glad to agree.

His constant endeavour, he says, is to make films that people don’t expect of him. “Everybody expects me to do a thriller or an underworld movie. But cinema is not just about keeping your audience, it is also about personal growth. What is most important is breaking new ground and trying to see what else we can do and what might work. One might fail doing that, but in the process, a lot of other things may open up.”

The most interesting departure for Kashyap, in that sense, was the end-of-year release, “The Return of Hanuman”, which he reportedly made because his daughter wanted a film that she could watch in the theatres. Although the film hasn’t made a significant dent in the box office, it has been lauded by many as a strong effort in Indian animation.

For Kashyap, that is its primary role, pushing forward the cause of animation in the country. “For me, ‘The Return of Hanuman’ should pave the way to redefine ourselves in the field of animation, in the sense that we need to meet world standards. And we cannot do that unless we have that kind of financial support.”

Of course, working on the film has awakened his own interest in animation, and the director sees himself doing an animation film at least once every three or four years, “because the correct way is to take at least three years for each film. I would like to do a more mature, adult kind of animation. I don’t know if Indian adult audiences will be open to animation. But when I see a film like ‘Persepolis’, I feel like there is so much more I want to do,” he says.

For the record, Kashyap’s reading of Indian cinema as it currently stands is rather heartening.

“We are definitely heading in a positive direction. All kinds of films will now be made in this country. It is not necessary that you should have stars or songs. It will take a lot of work, but there are now producers who are open to that kind of cinema.”

The industry, however, does still lack openness to new experiments, a lack that he came up against in the form of overly vitriolic reactions to his John Abraham-starrer “No Smoking”.

“I didn’t expect that kind of attack on me. And it wasn’t film criticism, it was like an attack on me. It almost felt like nobody wants to change things and they would rather stay in their own scene,” he explains. He admits, he initially over-reacted to the caustic commentary.

“But I am over it now. I have decided that I will continue doing what I am doing and not react to what the detractors say or do.”

Kashyap lays the blame for this lack of openness at the feet of critics and award juries. “You have to first learn to appreciate and understand cinema before you criticise it. A lot of the time, anything new completely shocks people and instead of trying to see a point of view they first decide to trash it. The growth of any art form would not be possible unless there are critics who open their arms to it,” he says, adding that it was also disheartening to see that almost none of the most interesting films of 2007 came up on any of the award lists.

“The two people you expect to appreciate this kind of change are the critics — the media— and the awards. If the audience was not aware and didn’t go and see these films that is fine. But if the critics and the awards ignore these kinds of films then it becomes stifling, a lost cause. Still, my job is to keep trying to do what I want to do.”

That list includes his patently unlucky “Gullal”, which will finally see completion by June. Kashyap will also start work on “Dev D”, an adaptation of Devdas in February. “Devdas is just being used as a medium. The film is not Devdas. It deals with modern day relationships and equations and people and youth and sexuality in a way that most love stories and relationship films don’t,” he replies to the inevitable question about why another Devdas.

“Devdas is applicable to our society. Personally I don’t like it as a piece of literature, I think it is one of the worst that we have celebrated. We are a people who like sacrifices and our whole mentality has become one of self pity. But things are changing and the film is about how Devdas would have been written if it was written today, and how it is yet applicable today.”

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