‘I know what happens when my film goes for certification’: Anurag Kashyap on fear and censorship in filmmaking

Bengaluru: The biggest fear Anurag Kashyap faces in India, he says, is not being able to make the kind of films he wants to.

“I know what happens when my film goes for certification in India,” he said. 

The renowned filmmaker was speaking at the session ‘fearless filmmaking’ at the 17th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival on Saturday.

It was moderated by well-known film critic Baradwaj Rangan. He expressed concerns of making films in the current era in India, and the need to adapt to changing audience preferences. 

“As an Academy member, I watch a lot of foreign films and my ruse is, why do we not make such films in India?. We don’t make such films because these filmmakers will not survive in India,” he said.

Rangan and Kashyap discussed the changing landscape of film consumption – mobile phones and OTT platforms.

Kashyap’s ‘Kennedy’ is releasing on Zee5 next month. He expressed disappointment about films being watched on small screens.

“Films are meant to be watched on the big screen. Kennedy was not meant for the small screen. But I’m happy it is at least releasing in the theatres,” he said. 

Will Kashyap change according to audience preferences and make movies for the small screen going forward? He says ‘no’.

“I’m too old to change now and it is important to stay true to one’s artistic vision,” he adds.

Kashyap is known for such movies as Black Friday, Gangs of Wasseypur, Dev D, No Smoking and Bombay Velvet.

At the event, Kashyap announced that he will produce a film adaptation of Vivek Shanbag’s ‘Gachar Gochar’. 

Sreekar Prasad Well-known film editor Sreekar Prasad who has edited over 600 movies across languages says artificial intelligence will not take away the vision of the editor. Speaking about the ‘Art of Editing’ moderated by producer Sandeep Vishwanath Prasad said AI will not be able to replace human intuition. 

He spoke about the philosophy of editing the changing nature of technology and the enduring role of human judgement in storytelling. On moving from film to digital he said “I saw the ease of the equipment when I worked on a documentary. Film is still nostalgia and I loved working on it but new-age editing technology makes the process much easier”. 

He highlighted the need to break away from conventional editing techniques and to find innovative ways to tell stories especially in the context of Indian cinema which often relies on verbose dialogue and repetitive patterns.

Among the many woes cinephiles expressed were small screens with low seating capacity at Lulu mall compared to the previous venue and inconsistency in scheduling films. “The screens are very small. The seating capacity is very low and I missed two movies yesterday” said Akshay Bharadwaj a cinephile. 

“Apichatpong Weerasethukal is the contemporary filmmaker in focus this year but no movies of the filmmaker are scheduled in the first four days of screening” said an angry cinephile. They are also unhappy about high food prices at the venue.  Electric autos will ply between Krantiverra Sangoli Rayanna metro station and the festival venue at Lulu mall from 8.30 am Sunday onwards confirmed mall authorities.