Not Just Bollywood | Anurag Kashyap on Pathaan: ‘Shah Rukh Khan is the symbol of love’

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap talks about his film Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat. Firstpost caught up with him as he was enjoying his Chola Kuulchaa from Shankar Market, Delhi. He said, “When I used to study in Delhi’s Hansraj College, I used to survive on this.” Wearing a shirt which has the tagline of the film written_, ‘Mohabaat Se Hi Kranti Aayeegi’_, Anurag Kashap says that Shah Rukh Khan is the symbol of love and it is the people’s love for him that brought them back to the theatres. His comeback was to tell everybody that enough with your prejudice and enough about the false narrative that is been built around him and Bollywood.

Excerpts from the interview: Your connection with Vicky Kaushal has been very long and why did you unanimously settle down for Vicky Kaushal for the role? Vicky and I have gone back very long since 2010. His father sent him to me and he gave me a big application. He was my assistant for Gangs of Wasseypur. It’s 13 years now. I have seen him as a kid growing up in front of me. His father did Black Friday with me. So, we know each other well. As to why I did _Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat_ , the reason is simple, I found it was important for me to do a film for this generation. For the earlier generation it would have been DJ Mohabbat with Shah Rukh Khan. In our time, if you ask who the symbol of love was, the one and only answer from everybody will be Shah Rukh Khan . But when my daughter grew up I realised that I need to make a film for this generation. I sat down with the kids to know who they feel is the symbol of love. When I asked them, unanimously it was Vicky Kaushal. Vicky in all his films has played the role of that boy who was loved sincerely. There is something about him that the kids of this generation really love. Why Mohabbat Se Kranti Ayegi is the tagline of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat?  We live in a world full of hatred and everybody is bitter. So, I feel the only way out is love. Love is the only solution. See for yourself how people love Shah Rukh Khan. They were dancing, whistling and they were so happy to see him back. It is people’s love for him that brought him back to the theatres. His comeback was to tell everybody that enough with your prejudice and enough about the false narrative that has been built around him and Bollywood. With vengeance people have come out to celebrate SRK. Shah Rukh Khan made a statement with his film Pathaan, and the people made a statement by giving him the love. What were the challenges faced during the shoot of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat… It was shot in Kashmir and we were just five days away from finishing the film and the lockdown happened. The film got delayed for two years. That was the biggest challenge. Also for the actors it was difficult to learn the Pahari dialect of Hindi. You will be collaborating with Amit Trivedi again, what do you have to say about that? I love Amit and I have a lot of faith and trust in him. So, when I was doing this film, I made it very clear to him that out poetry level can’t be of our age or our voice. It has to be the voice of the youngsters. The film has two DJs, one played by Karan Mehta and the other played by Vicky Kaushal, Vicky is wiser one and believes that ‘Mohabaat Sai Hi Kranti Aayeegi’. He is the one propagating that. And the other DJ played by Karan is only creating music for the people to dance. I had to learn the difference in the treatment of the film for today’s generation. I had to sit with my daughter and unlearn a lot of things. This film is showing how the new generation navigates through love, life and their aspirations. The message that is put out in the film is from DJ Mohabaat’s character which I am wearing on my shirt ‘Mohabaat Sai Hi Kranti Aayeegi’ (he says pointing it out at his shirt). I must say that we are living in such times of hate and prejudice that we really need love, empathy, and tolerance for today’s world. On the OTT boom and how it is a great time for creative people? For independent filmmakers like me, OTT has been a blessing. We are independent filmmakers and to have a digital platform is nothing but a blessing. People have this misconception that a film’s success or failure depends on the box office. Box –office is a perception. Films continue to give you back. My old films are still working whether on satellite or OTT, viewers keep loving it. And audiences have become very money wise post pandemic. They will spend their money in films that will give them the value for their money. They will watch only such movies in the theatre that they have been waiting for long like Pathaan. And the good word of mouth works for regional films, not Hindi films. To build up good word of mouth for a certain film, you need three to four weeks which doesn’t happen for Bollywood films.

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