Anurag Kashyap, who has been one of the most outspoken filmmakers, recently had a release with the Bobby Deol-starrer Bandar. While the film received decent reviews, it couldn’t leave a strong mark at box office due to stiff competition from the Hollywood breakout hit Obsession and Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, which led to his film having very few screens. In a recent interview, the filmmaker addressed the subject of smaller films getting limited theatrical windows, also talking about Main Vaapas Aaunga, the Imtiaz Ali film that released on June 12. 

In an interview with HT City, speaking about his own film Bandar, Anurag Kashyap said, “The film’s night shows were full. But who will go and watch it at 9 AM, when it is going to upset you for the rest of the day! There’s human psychology also involved. If I watch my own film, the rest of my day will be ruined.” In the same breath, Anurag pointed out how even a relatively less intense film like Main Vaapas Aaunga isn’t getting right number of shows. He said, “Main Vaapas Aaunga is not like Bandar, it should have had more shows. It’s emotional, soulful, has everything that’s good about commercial films. I can still understand for Bandar.”

The filmmaker added on the subject, “I can understand the theatrical business is business. They want to make money right now, and Obsession is working. But my thing is, Obsession can still survive on less shows. Smaller films should get proper shows so that people can watch them, allowing word of mouth to build up. Theatre owners themselves don’t allow the word of mouth to build up. Slowly, people give up on it because they’re like, ‘Okay, it’s an inconvenient time and we’ll see it when it comes on OTT.’ If you are building an audience only for event movies, then only those movies will be made. They are so expensive, and the hit-and-miss ratio is huge. For every Dhurandhar, there will be five expensive films that will bomb.”

While Main Vaapas Aaunga has received reviews on social media, the positive response hasn’t translated to box office success. While the film picked up over the weekend and had decent hold on Monday, the film still needs to register much larger collections to have shot at a healthy box office run.