On Monday, Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar had its premiere at the 50th edition of Toronto International Film Festival. The prison drama stars Bobby Deol and Sanya Malhotra. In a recent media interaction, Anurag Kashyap spoke about what compelled him to make the film, and the things he took care of during the process.

Speaking to The Hindu, Anurag said that Bandar was very important for him, because it was ‘the most difficult to make, emotionally difficult and traumatising.’ Which is why I have Sakshi Bhagat as my co-director on this project. She has a strong voice. I didn’t want to make this film from a man’s point of view. We also have two women producers on board. We wanted to have all the perspectives to fix it, while men are already there.” Sakshi had previously worked on Anurag’s Kennedy as a second unit director. The Rahul Bhatt-Sunny Leone starrer is yet to theatrically release in India. 

Speaking further about the origin point of Bandar, Anurag noted, “World has changed a lot because of social media. People get cancelled, celebrated and go viral in seconds. I am very anti-cancel culture. I believe in forgiveness and giving second chances to people. I also believe in calling out people, but while allowing them to fix thing.” Anurag added, “I didn’t want to make a me-too film or a men-too film. I wanted to make a film about the world we are living in. How the system has become so unforgiving.”

On Bandar, Anurag Kashyap has collaborated with writers Abhishek Banarjee and Sudip Sharma (Paatal Lok, Kohraa). The film, which also stars Sapna Pabbi, is produced by Nikhil Dwivedi under his banner Saffron Magicworks.

Meanwhile, Kashyap also awaits the release of Nishaanchi, his first theatrical release in over 2 years since the new-age romance Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat. The film will arrive on September 19.