Trigger Warning: This article contains references to alcohol and drug addiction
Anurag Kashyap is one of the most prolific directors in Bollywood who has also championed independent voices throughout his career. In a recent interview, the Gangs of Wasseypur director spoke about how his passion project Maximum City was shelved and how it impacted his health. Let’s find out what he said in the interview.
Anurag Kashyap’s Maximum City was shelved
In an interview with The Washington Post, Anurag Kashyap spoke about the time he was working on a series adaptation of Suketu Mehta’s popular novel Maximum City. He said, “It was my best work. I’ve never done such honest, important work.” The director further said that it was shelved as Netflix backed out of the project. This took a toll on him as he went into depression, started drinkingly heavily and had two heart attacks after that. “Maximum City was where all my energy went. I was heartbroken. I totally lost it”, he added.
Kashyap said that the shelving took place without any specific reason but he suspects its content was sensitive. He also criticized the streaming space and said, “Streaming was finally the space I was waiting for. The disappointment is it was supposed to be a revolution, but it was not. Like social media, it was supposed to empower people, but it became a tool.”
Anurag Kashyap on Kennedy
Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming directorial venture is called Kennedy. This crime thriller stars Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat in the lead and it had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. After that, it was also screened at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 where it got a standing ovation. During the Q & A session, the director credited Sudhir Mishra for its idea. He said, “Uday Shetty, as a character, has stayed in my head for close to 20 years. Sudhir had hired me to write a film, which had Sanjay Dutt and Tejaswini Kolhapure, but it did not take off.”
Kashyap added, “He (Mishra) used to talk about a cop from the ’80s called Uday Shetty. (The cop) actually existed, and we have not even changed the name (in the film).”
