Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap cleared the air about a couple of notable chapters in his career, in a new interview. Appearing on Mashable India’s The Bombay Journey YouTube series, the filmmaker spoke about the rumour that he was behind the leak of his unreleased first film Paanch on torrent sites. He also addressed the state of Sacred Games, India’s first Netflix original series.
Anurag co-directed both the first and second seasons of the show, alongside Vikramaditya Motwane and Neeraj Ghaywan, respectively. The second season wasn’t as well received as season one, and Netflix hasn’t given any update about whether the show is officially cancelled or not.
He said in Hindi, “Vikram Motwane was driving Sacred Games. Ten days before I was supposed to go shoot Mukkabaaz, he asked me to come on board. I told him I was always interested, but they had a problem with me. Some local people had told them that I didn’t have a female audience. It was my zone, and they eventually came around… A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why.”
He said that after the Tandav controversy, all streaming platforms are fearful. Released on Prime Video, the show became massively controversial over one scene involving actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. Multiple court cases were filed against the cast and crew, citing disruption of religious harmony. Changes were made to the objectionable scene by series creator Ali Abbas Zafar. “OTT ki aaj ki date mein himmat nahi hai, Tandav ke baad sab dar gaye hain,” he said.
Anurag was also asked about the leak of his film Paanch. He said, “I didn’t leak it. That’s what people believe. I showed it to people, I’d made a print for myself, which I had distributed among people, one of them could’ve leaked it. But it wasn’t me.
Black Friday got pirated, and I used to buy those copies in bulk, put them in proper boxes, and distribute it in the US. I would tell them to sell it. It got pirated and somehow reached Pakistan. The people who pirated it got a message through to me via the band Junoon. They said, ‘Your film made us so much money, if you ever need funding, we’ll help’. I said, ‘No, thank you’.”
Anurag’s new film, Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, is due for release on February 3. Sacred Games aired its second season in 2019.