Anurag Kashyap

Greta Gerwig’s directorial work Barbie has created a huge sensation all around the world. For all the right reasons? Indeed for all the right reasons. To say that seeing Barbie in the modern era is a delight would be a sheer understatement. Gorgeous Margot Robbie along with the dashing Ryan Gosling has done a fine job in their portrayal of Barbie and Ken. However, what if it were not the two of them in the Barbie world but the iconic cast of the cult classic film, Gangs of Wasseypur? AI has visualized this for you!…

In the last decade, Netflix went from being a nobody to one of the biggest players in Hollywood. That strength is visible from the money it's now spending on movies — over $500 million (about Rs. 3,570 crores) put together on Martin Scorsese, Michael Bay, and Dwayne Johnson's ventures — and how it's rivalling other studios at awards. It has the most nominations at the 2020 Golden Globes, to take place this Sunday. But here in India, Netflix simply isn't at a stage where it can get big-time Bollywood directors to make…

Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai, releasing on Netflix today, is the newest movie from Anurag Kashyap, among the most well-known Indian directors internationally. That's big because in the dozen or so films Netflix has made in (or acquired from) India so far, the streaming service hasn't managed to land any A-list talent as the face in front or behind the camera. Primarily because subscription-based online platforms like Netflix just don't enjoy the same ubiquity or power in India as they do in more mature markets such as the US.…

Deep into Cargo — a rare sci-fi movie from India now on Netflix — the male lead Prahastha (Vikrant Massey, from Chhapaak) laments that the dead people he interacts with in his job feel more alive than he does. Named after the chief commander of Raavan's army from the Hindu epic Ramayan, Prahastha is a member of homo rakshasas, which draws off the mythology of bloodthirsty beast-like demonic creatures known as rakshasas. But Prahastha and his cohorts are nothing like that. Instead, they look just as homo sapiens (that's…

From Kerala to Bihar to Bombay, what was your childhood like? I was born in a nondescript village in Kerala, which didn’t even have electricity earlier. I have seen electricity arrive there. We lived in a joint family. In my fifth standard, my father and our family moved to Bihar. This was the first turning point in my life. Around us were only two or three families from Kerala. I had passed the fifth standard back in Kerala but had to join the same standard in Bihar because I did not follow Hindi at all. Everybody else…

How much of your early life in Bihar comes into your work? The first feature film that I wrote and directed, Chintu Ka Birthday, is set in Iraq with Bihari characters. A lot of quirks, dialect-related nuances, mannerisms, the family equation, and the warmth and idiosyncrasies that I observed while growing up in the small town of Munger in Bihar came into the film. Biharis loved the portrayal. This is great because, over the years, there have been many stereotypes associated with Bihar and Biharis. The film, in a way,…