In a recent interview, director Anurag Kashyap tried to analyse the run of failures produced by Yash Raj Films and talked about Aditya Chopra. The entire business used to turn to YRF and Karan Johar's Dharma Productions for direction on where the audience's sensibilities rested, but that period has already passed, according to Anurag.
With several flops this year, including Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Samrat Prithviraj, and Shamshera, YRF is struggling in an already challenging period for Bollywood. Anurag discussed the state of the Hindi film industry and its challenges with Galatta Plus.
“The industry is such that people will continue walking in from all walks of life,” he said, adding, “Here, cinema is largely controlled by those people, and that to second generation, that has grown up in trial rooms. They have not lived life. So, they’re referencing is based on cinema. What is not on screen can’t be cinema to them. The biggest problem with YRF is the trial room effect. You take a story and you want to make a Pirates of the Caribbean out of it and it becomes Thugs of Hindostan. You take a story, and you want to make a Mad Max: Fury Road out of it, and it becomes Shamshera. The moment you head in that direction, you’re cheating yourself, especially in today’s time. The Shamshera would’ve really worked two-three years back.”
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According to the director, audiences are now exposed to a wide variety of films and won't settle for knockoffs when they can watch the originals for themselves. Anurag claimed that Jayeshbhai Jordaar didn't appeal to him "at all" since the Gujarat shown in the movie "didn't seem like Gujarat."
Anurag continued, “You have one person sitting in a cave, who doesn’t know the world outside, dictating how everybody should be making their films and telling them what to do. Obviously you’re digging your own grave… You have to empower people, you can’t dictate terms. That time is passe now. If Aditya Chopra has hired a bunch of people, he needs to empower them and not dictate them, not control the casting, not control everything. Sit in your office, hire good people if you trust them, and let them make their film. Which is the mistake he makes. He doesn’t let them (be).”
Anurag claimed that other studios in addition to YRF should pay heed to this since everyone is currently attempting to imitate the Marvel model and develop their own shared universes. He predicted that as a result, filmmakers would "lose themselves."
Dobaaraa, a sci-fi thriller starring Taapsee Pannu, will be released in theatres on August 19 and is directed by Anurag Basu.
