Anurag Kashyap Praises U.P.’s Film Policies

Anurag Kashyap recently visited Lucknow to apply for a subsidy for his last project ‘Masaan’, which was shot in Banaras and has won various awards at several international film festivals. The director, who hails from Banaras, seemed visibly happy with U.P.’s film policy. The 42-year-old filmmaker told TOI, "The Film Bandhu offers so many benefits to a filmmaker who is making a new kind of cinema". 

He also stated, "Most of our mainstream cinema today has a north Indian protagonist. I'm talking about all the big films, not just the films I'm making. But the only thing that was missing in these films was the authenticity of North India.They were all shot in some set or some place in Mumbai masquerading as North India”.

The Dev.D director further added, “It was so because there was an image put out there - that it is difficult to shoot here, which is not so anymore. When we shot Masaan in Banaras, it was such a smooth shoot in comparison to when I shot Gangs of Wasseypur here. Inspite of taking the permissions, there were hiccups back then. Like some local person would just stand up and create problems, and to them the permissions didn't matter. But there's a smoothness now, there's a seriousness now”.

While talking about his Bhojpuri project, he said, "It has been a dream to make a Bhojpuri blockbuster. But it always seemed like, 'will we be able to do it or not'. Suddenly it seems like, 'yes we can do it'. We have a script". He denied revealing the script and said it is in the writing phase. He confirmed that he will be coming to U.P. to shoot in the next year.