Anurag Kashyap on why Pathaan matters

“Through Pathaan, they will notice my films.” Why Anurag thinks Shah Rukh Khan’s success matters to filmmakers like him…

Transcript

00:00Pathan I'm going to watch first day first show, early morning show, I might not be making a movie

00:04like Pathan but I want Pathan to work, I want Shah Rukh's success is important, it's important to

00:09the whole of industry. Do you think at least the top minds in Bollywood are taking

00:19I mean are they taking the whole so-called boycott movement to heart?

00:23Is it getting more credit than it's due?

00:29See, it remains to be seen, it is a mutual thing because I think a good film regardless of

00:36anything works in the long run and why I say works in the long run is because I'm a filmmaker who has

00:44never had an opening and I'm still here after 30 years and my films have lived on whether on OTT

00:54or wherever even the Gangs of Wasseypur didn't work as much at the time of its release right

00:58so tomorrow Pathan is coming out, we'll see, we'll see. Sir, you mentioned you know

01:05how important is Pathan in the overall scheme of things you know

01:09in the political and are you looking for, have you booked your ticket yet?

01:15Pathan, I'm going to watch first day for sure, early morning show.

01:19And if you can just elaborate on why it is important for Hindi cinema

01:26broadly speaking? It is important for big films like Pathan or say Bhola or things to work because

01:34you know the money comes into the circulation. When Pathan works, the cinema exhibitors

01:43kind of make the money, it strengthens them. When it strengthens them, it gives them courage.

01:50Also, what it does for the audience is audience starts to come out from the cinemas.

01:54Courage to do what? To see Pathan, they might by chance notice my hoarding standing in a corner.

02:04They will become curious, what is this? A lot of time right now people, the windows

02:11have become short, the advertising is reduced because unlike in the south where they do not

02:14advertise at all, there's the only way for people to find out what movies are coming out by

02:19reading and going to cinemas. Here everybody had become very, the films will be served to us.

02:28The responsibility was on the film to tell people that we are coming.

02:33Now people have been weaned off. It will take a time, it will take a while because everybody

02:40has realized that there's a lot of P&A cost that everybody is trying to cut now.

02:44Not every film can afford it right. So now people will find out what films are going to come out.

02:50That's one aspect sir. Auric aspect given what's going, you know what has gone on

02:56with especially with Shah Rukh and his son etc. We don't want to broach that subject

03:01but given the socio-political milieu in which the movie is coming out and all the talk that

03:08has happened to Abhishek Amrang etc. Is there another dimension to, if the movie does

03:16very well, are you going to draw a certain kind of lesson from how the movie performs?

03:20It empowers, the success of the film empowers the film industry.

03:26By film industry you mean a certain section of the film industry?

03:30All of us, all of us, all of us working in the Hindi film industry.

03:34It empowers everyone, each one of us. I might not be making a movie like Pathan

03:40but I want Pathan to work. I want Shah Rukh's success is important to him.

03:45It's important to the whole of industry. Why? Because you know you have, we exist because of

03:55that. The big films, if you look at different countries in the world, where there's no mainstream

04:03of cinema, it's very hard to make films. They don't have a film industry.

04:11They're dependent on cultural funds and they're dependent on foreign producers.

04:15But you have OTT now. In spite of that, our biggest strength is we have a cinema obsessed country

04:25We have a film industry that empowers me so much that I can make a film every year.