Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has become the latest celebrity who has joined the Adolescence series praise-bandwagon. The director took to Instagram on Tuesday night to appreciate the show but not without pointing fingers at the series’ platform Netflix and accusing their bosses of “hypocrisy” when it comes to the Indian market.
Anurag shared a screenshot of a post by Netflix head Ted Sarandos praising Adolescence. “I am numb and envious and jealous that someone can go and make that,” he wrote in the caption. “The amount of hard work that has gone in the show. I can’t even imagine the rehearsals and prep they did, so they could shoot every episode in a single shot,” he added.
Then, in the comments section, Anurag expressed his grouse with Netflix India team. “Ted sarandos recently put a post where he says - “every once and while one comes along that pushes into brand new territories, defies the limits of creativity and features career-defining performances. “. And I hope he means it. Because his on Netflix.in is a totally opposite shitshow,” he wrote. He also went on to explain why a show like Adolescence will never be made in India. “If they were pitched this, most probably they would have rejected it or turned it into a 90 minute film (that too seems like an impossibility because it doesn’t have an ending that is black and white) . Having gone through twice with them post Sacred Games and dealing with total lack of empathy, courage and dumbness mixed with immense insecurity of the series head and the team that keeps getting fired. It frustrates me,” he added.
Anurag also went on to call out Netflix heads, stating that their only interest in India is to increase subscriptions and nothing else. “How do we ever create something so powerful and honest with a bunch of most dishonest and morally corrupt @netflix.in backed so strongly by the boss in LA. This hypocrisy of Ted and Bella via a vis the indian market of 1.4 billion people , where there only interest is increase in subscriptions and nothing else,” he wrote.
The Gangs of Wasseypur director also blasted the OTT platform’s upcoming series Saare Jahan Se Accha, starring Pratik Gandhi. “There was a time when Eric Barmack would reach out on Facebook to create something with Netflix to now where they send you a shot show like “saare jahan se achcha “ - which wasn’t even written properly and half baked . Which by the way has already changed directors and been shot twice (inevitably).”
“It makes me frustrated , jealous of shows like Adolesence and envious and hopeless. I hope they learn from the reception of it and realise that all the best things indian netflix does is mostly either acquired (Delhi Crime, Black warrant) or the ones they least believed in ( kohrra , trial by fire ) . Fingers crossed for a better future,” he concluded.
In the past too Anurag has blamed OTT platforms for stifling creativity by ticking to content made as per algorithms.
On the film front, Anurag was last seen in the Tamil thriller Maharaja alongside Vijay Sethupathi. His last directorial, Kennedy, is still awaiting release in theatres.
