Anurag Kashyap calls pan-India films 'a massive scam', says only 1% of them work: 'Everybody is chasing the elusive...'

Anurag Kashyap, who has helmed critically acclaimed films such as Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly, Black Friday, Gulaal, and Dev.D among others, is known for voicing out his opinions, for which he often gets into troubles also. In his latest interview, the filmmaker has slammed the trend of pan-India films, stating that the money goes into massive sets and only 1% of them work and the majority of them end up failing at the box office.

Speaking in a session with The Hindu, Kashyap said, "For me, pan-India is a massive scam. Pan-India is a term. A film is pan-India if it performs pan-India. How can a film be pan-India before it’s even made? The film goes into production for three to four years. A lot of people are involved in the film. So their lifestyle also depends on the film for three to four years. So all the money doesn’t go into the film. The story is the same, the actors are the same, the money goes into these massive, unreal sets, which doesn’t make sense. Only 1% of it works. And that 1% again starts the whole cycle of pan-India."

"Some films have become successful, that nobody expected, like Stree. That started the horror comedy trend. When Uri became a success, everybody started doing nationalistic films. Post Baahubali, everybody started doing these big ass movies with Prabhas or somebody else. KGF became a success, everyone wants to emulate that. And that’s where the decline in storytelling begins. It all becomes a formula because everybody is chasing that elusive Rs 800-900-1,000 crore. Figures are going up, but there’s maybe one film that’s crossed Rs 1,000 crore, one film that’s crossed Rs 900 crore. In the last five years, there may be only five or six films that have reached there, but we’re making 1,000 films a year", the Bombay Velvet director concluded.

Meanwhile, Kashyap's latest film Kennedy is awaiting a theatrical release for the past two years. The neo-noir action thriller stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in the leading roles, and has been received well at its screenings at multiple international film festivals.

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