After multiple international film festivals including the prestigious Cannes, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s neo-noir film Kennedy was screened at the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) at packed cinema hall in West Bengal film centre Nandan on Sunday. Anurag opens up on the film and his style of work in an interaction with Souvik Ghosh in Kolkata.
Q. Tell us about your thought process behind casting Sunny Leone, who was earlier seen in typical roles in Bollywood.
A. She was my first choice for the film. People see her in a certain way and objectify her. But for me, she is a human being. I didn’t need to do anything but only needed her to come on board. It was a matter of whether she was willing to be a part of this kind of film and give an audition for the role which she did. Her intention was to do a film like this and she gave her entirety to it. I don’t judge actors on the basis of their movies directed by others. I don’t think I have watched any of Sunny Leone’s movies. But I saw her interviews where I saw a person in her who amazed me. I was sure of casting this sort of a person in the film.
Q. Does that knowledge about an actor as a human being help you in casting?
A. Yes, the knowledge of a person helps me in casting. It has been my career graph. It was the same while casting Taapsee Pannu (actress) in Manmarziyaan. Everybody asked me to watch her previous films. I have always said that I don’t need to judge someone on the basis of what they have done for other directors. I go by my instinct if I feel a person can pull off a certain role upon meeting him/her. That is why I work with actors, who give me that much time and trust. I have a hunger to do something like that. So I don’t enjoy working with satisfied people (laughs).
Q. Do you care about box office collections?
A. I care about the producer recovering his/her money (laughs). I don’t care about anything else. When my producer recovers his/her invested money, I am sure of doing my next film (laughs).
Q. You are an opinionated person. Do you insulate yourself from the outside world when you make a film?
A. I isolate myself. I stay away because there is a lot of noise. Our country is already overpopulated. There is always a debate. Everybody imposes one’s opinion on others. So I like to stay away from it but I am aware of the world we are living in and that always seeps into a film.
Q. Your film was praised at different film festivals. How different was this feeling from earlier times when your films were screened?
A. For me, the greatest feeling was the audience’s response in India and Mumbai, more than Cannes (Cannes Film Festival). When the film was played in MAMI (MAMI Mumbai Film Festival), I held that reaction much closer to me. It was unbelievable.
Q. Why did the audience’s reactions at MAMI touch you more?
A. It was because Mumbai was my homeground. It was the first time the audience was not reading the subtitles. The film was directly reaching the audience. I am not speaking against subtitles but a lot gets lost in translation. But what was happening in the film was reaching the home audience much stronger and more reactions were drawn. I did not have to explain anything to the audience unlike at festivals abroad where I had to explain the context of an Indian film.
We have to explain what India is, when we go out. India itself is a very complex concept to explain to the people in the West. Their judgement of India comes from mainstream Bollywood films. My film is neither art house nor mainstream. It is somewhere in between. In MAMI, I did not have to explain anything. Every joke was landing accurately. There was a constant reaction from the audience throughout the screening. (IBNS-TWF)
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