Don’t Like This Cancel Culture

Anurag Kashyap shared this image. (courtesy: AnuragKashyap)

New Delhi:

Months ago, Anurag Kashyap made headlines for giving a big shout-out to Animal director Sandeep Reddy Vanga. While the Ranbir Kapoor film has been slammed by many for being “misogynistic”, Anurag showered praises on Sandeep in his extensive note. Now, in a new episode of his daughter Aaliyah Kashyap’s podcast Young, Dumb & Anxious, Anurag was questioned, “What in the world was the Sandeep Reddy Vanga post?” Justifying himself, Anurag Kashyap said, “I met him, I like him. I like the guy. I’ve had questions of my own and I wanted to talk to him about his film (Animal). I invited him and I had a long five-hour conversation and I like the guy.”

Responding to her father’s statement, Aaliyah Kashyap said, “Yeah, so I understand that you are allowed to like a guy. The problem I had and I think a lot of other people had, was the caption of the post, where you promoted him as someone and the movie and talked about that which I was very not happy about because I actually saw Animal and called you, immediately after and ranted about what a horrible misogynistic movie it was and how much I hated it. And you agreed with me and then a week later I open Instagram and I see a post from my father, promoting a man I was b******g about.”

To this Anurag Kashyap said, “No, but it is like…I have always believed in talking to people. So you were very young when your father was cancelled like that. After Dev D (2009)…after all my films. I was supposed to be untouchable. I was supposed to be the guy that everybody said, ‘Manhoos hai. Don’t make a film with him. Whatever he touches doesn’t release.’ I was cancelled after Dev D by a lot of people, saying that was the ‘misogynistic thing…The same thing happened after Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012). Even though my characters had agencies, everything like that. So, what happens is I have often seen people isolating someone, attacking someone and that is not the way to be.”

Anurag Kashyap added, “I don’t understand social media but before social media there were blogs and I was a blogger. And I used to do the same thing against the whole industry. Because I thought the whole industry was my enemy. I was very hard and angry and everything like that. I would, always in anger, talk about Karan Johar. I would talk about other people in the industry. I remember a post after Dabangg (2010) and I got into a fight with Salman Khan…not exactly a fight, but started ranting against him. So, I also had lots of anger. I also got isolated like that, without people understanding. Over a period of time, people started seeing things differently. I just don’t like this cancel culture at all.”

He continued, “If I have a problem with a film, I will talk to the person. I will ask him my questions myself. You know what a lot of people that we look up to or we think that they are feminists and they are activists. More than 50 per cent of them are postures. They are not real at all. This man (Sandeep Reddy Vanga) is, what you see is what he is. People may like Animal, they may not like Animal, but Animal is a major tectonic shift in the way films will be made. People will realise its impact in 5-10 years from now. Post Animal, every action movie looks fake. When you see, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff), all those flips and fighting, it all looks fake because somehow the action in that film (Animal) and the use of music in that film had an impact, the technical details in the film had an impact on the audience. That will forever impact cinema. Storytelling-wise, character-wise anyone can have questions. But I would rather talk to the person.”

In his post about Sandeep Reddy Vanga, Anurag Kashyap had written: “Had a great evening with Sandeep Reddy Vanga. The most misunderstood, judged and reviled Filmmaker at the moment. To me, he is the most honest, vulnerable and lovely human being. And I really don’t give a f*** what anyone thinks of him or his film. I wanted to meet the man and I had questions and he answered everything I asked of him about his film that I actually saw twice.”

Read the complete note here:

Released last year in December, Animal made whopping earnings at the box office. Directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, the film features Ranbir Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Anil Kapoor, Rashmika Mandanna, and Triptii Dimri among others.