Hyderabad: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who attends almost every film festival, has no aim to create movies for audiences outside of India. The filmmaker, in a recent interview, said his films resonate with people across the world but unfortunately, less so with the Hindi-speaking audiences. In the midst of all this, Anurag also questioned 'equality' in Bollywood and claimed that a movie's success heavily depends upon its promotion in our film industry.
During an interview with a webloid, Anurag said that the Bollywood film industry is largely controlled by the trade, box office, and star system. He also stated examples from the Tamil and Malayalam film industries to demonstrate how the scenario differs there.
The filmmaker shared that the South has a star system too, but still, the Tamil film industry has been able to produce five hits without major actors. "There's a certain kind of equality," he said. The director went on to say that in Mollywood, they simply release their films without much of a promotion. "In Tamil Nadu, everyone gets promoted with an equal amount, there's a ceiling to it. But here (Bollywood), a big film's promotion will dominate and a small film will disappear," said the director.
Anurag continued by recalling how Salman Khan's Ek Tha Tiger caused his 2012 film Gangs of Wasseypur to be pulled from screens. "Today, people talk highly about Gangs of Wasseypur, but it was taken off cinemas in nine days because a big film like Ek Tha Tiger was coming. It wasn't the decision of a star or a producer, it was the decision of the theatres. If that film had done a business of Rs 26 cr in nine days, it would have done more if it got space," the director revealed.
The Kennedy director then highlighted the lack of movie theatres in India as one of the underlying causes of such instances. Gangs of Wasseypur was released in two parts on June 22 and August 8, 2012, respectively. On the other hand, Ek Tha Tiger hit the theatres on August 15, 2012.
