Anurag Kashyap made the country proud when he received a 7-minute long standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival 2023 for his neo-noir thriller Kennedy starring Rahul Bhat, Sunny Leone and Abhilash Thapliyal. The film that has received cracking reviews from the critics premiered at the 14th Indian Film Festival Of Melbourne. Ahead of the prestigious event, Anurag Kashyap spoke exclusively with News18 Showsha about the concept of Kennedy, confusion around Chiyaan Vikram, dealing with negativity in the past couple of years, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and more. Excerpts.
Kennedy has a very atmospheric and graphic novel-like feel to it. How did you create that character and that world?
This character has been with me for the longest time. I have lived with this character for 20 years and it actually came from Sudhir Misra because he was narrating to me a story of a cop from the 80s, when I was writing a story for him. That story stayed with me, that character stayed with me. I was like how do I make a film around that. I didn’t wanted to make a film about 80s, about encounter cops. I said I can use this character to make a comic book.
I was very Influenced by the French comic artist Zapdardy and his comics. So I was like why can’t I create a comic book. Killer is one of my favourite graphic novels. So I wanted to create a world based on comic books. A realistic comic book world but the comic book is about crime. I had to create that atmosphere but the challenge was to create it here in Mumbai. I wanted the city to look a certain way and then the idea came that pandemic was the perfect time since the city was empty, it was not very crowded. I wanted an empty city, night shots, between 12 AM and 4 AM. And then we created this night film quite influenced by comic books. And another advantage of the pandemic was, everyone was wearing a mask. It was easier to give him a special mask so that he doesn’t look out of place and at the same time, he is not a superhero. He is just a character. So we made a comic World film about a fictional character and that’s what we did. And then I had a great team of production designers, everybody got excited about this project, everybody added to it. And the result was a comic-thriller.
What were your major learnings from Kennedy?
What I learnt from Kennedy is that people’s potential is so much more than what we assume. This is the film where not only the actors but every department outperformed themselves. I took a chance with a lot of people. There were two first timers that hadn’t met before. I made them meet. I put them together in my house for six months. For six months, the team jammed and played the music. The chances you take on people because you believe in them and they deliver more than what you expect. We make this notion of people that they can do only this or that, which is why fans always limit those they are fans of. That’s why I am terrified by fans because fans limit actors, directors and whatever becomes a hit, they make it a formula. Then people start doing the same things over and over again and it becomes repetitive. So I run away from fans.
Now that things are fine between you and Chiyaan Vikram, do you have q script in mind for him?
I reached out to Vikram on a number that he doesn’t use any more. My friend, Sobhita Dhulipal,a was working on Ponniyin Selvam. I told her to tell Vikram that ‘Ek Message Ka Toh Reply Kar Diya Kare’. She, in turn, told Vikram that ‘Anurag has sent you a script’ and he was like ‘I never got it’. And that’s when he called me but it was seven months too late. We were neck-deep in the pre-production process and Rahul had already prepared for the role. Then he was like ‘You wrote the script for me’ and I was like ‘You didn’t reply’. And then he asked me ‘which mobile number of his I had’. Then he showed me three different numbers that were active. I told him I didn’t know how to reach out to you and I had your number from four years ago when I was trying to reach out to you. Me and Vikram go back to the days of Satya. That time he would dub for many prominent names. I know him from Sethu when his film became a breakout and made him a star. I have always loved him as an actor. He is fantastic. I don’t have a script for him right now but my film is called Kennedy because I only had him in mind.
Have you thought about quitting filmmaking in India due to negativity in recent years?
The negativity did get to me for sometime for one or two years. But I think, I was done with it by 2021. But I was really affected by it for two years. Everything was affected and I was actually thinking about somewhere else. My friends from South invited me to make films in Tamil. My friend from Kerala invited me to make films in Malayalam. I also got invitation to make German and French films. But since I don’t know the languages, how would I be able to make them in the first place? All these things happened and I thought I should move out. But then I am glad I decided to stay. And now it’s over. Now it doesn’t affect me. I don’t even have the need to justify anything. I just want to keep making films. And I’ve been writing and writing and writing.
Karan Johar was overwhelmed with your review of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. What were your favourite moments from the film?
I loved that film. I saw that film twice in a span of 24 hours. And because I got up before the end credits rolled and couldn’t see the last song, I am going to see it the third time also. When I saw that song on Instagram, I was wondering where that song was in the film? I always get up before the end credits because people ask for selfies and it gets boring after a while. So I missed it, just like I always miss the end credits scene of Marvel movies. Coming to my favourite bits, the Dola Re song with Ranveer Singh and Tota Roy Chowdhury was phenomenal, the whole monologue of Ranveer Singh about the cancel culture was fantastic. And Ranveer Singh was in top form. Alia Bhatt is one of my favourite actors in the country and seeing Ranveer Singh upping and matching with her energy felt so good to watch. Their chemistry was palpable, the Durga Puja song was fantastic. This whole thing of Punjabi family vs Bengali family, Dharamendra-Shabana Azmi’s love story, everything. This time Karan Johar didn’t hold back. The Karan Johar I know, he has put that on screen. He did not play safe. When the film began, and I saw that the title song had Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan, I thought Karan will be playing safe again. But he didn’t do that and he went all out. After that song, Karan Johar was batting on the front foot.
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