Director Anurag Kashyap has left Mumbai for Bangalore. In the past, he had said that one of the biggest reasons why he moved out of the city was because some of his peers stopped wanting to be seen with or around him. In a new interview, he spoke about the exact moment when he felt disillusioned by the industry when he publicly praised a film after watching it’s “first day first show” and was contacted by its team to not talk about the movie because the makers didn’t want his name to be associated with the film.
In an interview with India Forums, recalling the incident Anurag said, “Once, after watching a first-day-first-show of a very big film, I came out and praised it. It was genuine. I rarely do this. I got a message from their team telling me not to talk about the film, because they felt if I praise it, people would assume it’s a political film.”
“My jaw dropped. I stopped interacting after that… What is left for me to say. This industry enjoys watching others fail. They didn’t even want genuine praise, because it was coming from me. I want to stay away from this insecurity. I’m a very secure man. That was the moment that made me realise I’d be happier away from this place,” he added.
While Anurag didn’t reveal the name of the film he’d praised, in 2023, he appeared in a paparazzi video praising Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan after catching it on day one of release. He had said, “Shah Rukh Khan itna haseen, itna sundar pehle kabhi laga nahi. Toh hum toh usko dekhne aaye the aur dil khush ho gaya. Aur itna khatarnaak action hai, Shah Rukh ke liye pehli baar aisa role hai. Mujhe nahi lagta unhone is tarah ka action pehle kiya hai.Kya body banayi hai (SRK hasn’t looked so handsome before. We came to watch him and our hearts are happy. The action is so good, Shah Rukh has done such a role for the first time. I don’t think he has done such action before. What a body he has made).”
Speaking about his decision to leave Mumbai, Anurag had recently said in another interview, “Hindi filmmakers have been avoiding me, because they think I’m bad new, because they think I have no filter and I talk. They think that if they get associated with me, they might not get (to work with) some studio or somebody else will get upset.”
Anurag’s next Nishaanchi is set to release on September 19.