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Producing a demon

PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

Giving the audience A never-before experience, says Anurag Kashyap

Maverick filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has done it yet again — he's produced a film no one else would touch. That's how the dark flick “Shaitan” saw the light of day.

“Everybody's making candyfloss cinema. We thought we'd do something that nobody is up to,” said Kashyap, who was recently at Bangalore's Cinemax to promote the film.

The film stars Kalki Koechlin, Rajeev Khandelwal, Gulshan Devaiya, Shiv Pandit, Kirti Kulhari and Neil Bhoopalam in the lead roles.

Anurag Kashyap has much faith in the young and raw actors who are “hungry about growth,”he says, but points out that all of them have already made their debuts earlier. Directed by Bejoy Nambiar, the film, with no social message, mirrors the urban affluent youth who believe in living life on the edge.

Back home

“Bangalore is my sasuraal so it's a pleasure to be here,” was how the recently-married Anurag Kashyap opened the press conference at Cinemax, referring to his wife and “Shaitan” actor Kalki Koechlin.

While sharing his thoughts about the movie he said, “It's a new-age movie. It's something that Indian audience has never experienced before.”

Those present among the star cast were Shiv Pandit, Kirti Kulhari and Neil Bhoopalam. Interacting with the media actor Neil Bhoopalam said, “Playing the role of Zubin Shroff was a different experience, unlike the roles I've played in the earlier movies, which were serious.”

Speaking about the role, model and actor Kirti Kulhari who first debuted in the film “Khichdi” in 2010 explained, “I play the character of Tanya Sharma. She is from a middle class family and supports them while also trying to find her place in the gang. She struggles between who she is and who she has to be.”

Preferring not to say much, RJ-turned-model Shiv Pandit, who also anchored a TV show recently for the IPL, summed it up in few words saying, “I leave it to you all to see what I've done in the movie.” Commenting on them, Kashyap quips, “I think they all are superstars and have done a great job.”

Recent reviews of “Shaitan” draw connection with Kashyap's unreleased movie “Paanch”.

To this, Anurag Kashyap replied, “The similarities are unintentional but it might have got in subconsciously. Nobody would know if there were any, since they haven't seen ‘Paanch',” he contends. The script of “Shaitan” is based on newspaper stories.

While giving credit to Viacom 18 that gave a huge release to the movie, he also added, “I wanted to produce the movie because nobody wanted to do it. I saw the potential in ‘Shaitan' as well as in Bejoy.”

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