Anurag Kashyap

You're on some serious medication?

Just recovering from lots of problems... all because of alcohol man! Tu ek kaam kar, check out some stuff from my latest film - I'll just take some time to wake up. Theek hai? The one's stuck too. About 80% complete. Financer backed out.

What's this film about?

Simple straight story.

Riiight...

It is! Titled Gulaal. Set in Rajasthan. Rajput mafia... kinda futuristic - about a fictitious movement called Rajputana, it's got Kay Kay playing a warlord. And yeah, that's this character who plays Kay Kay's brother. He stays locked up in the haveli, he's lost it because he was across the street when John Lennon was shot, and he has this 'companion'... this 'bahrupiya' who is half woman - half man. But it really is a straight story.

You're not a Mumbai boy, are you?

Not really. Parents are in Banaras. But I hardly lived there. Was in boarding schools all through. First at Dehra Dun, then in Scindia's and later in Hansraj College, Delhi. Graduated with Zoology Honours.

And you wrote the definitive Mumbai movie Satya. How? Lots of research?

None. Satya was just a story about a bunch of people, friends. And it just so happened, that these guys are also the mafia. I mean, it's a really easy story. Satya goes to work like anyone else. it's just incidental that his work is extortion. The only research that happened was during the time of shooting, that too we used to just refer to daily newspaper articles, not even archives. And the climax is 'inspired'. Satya was one of my best works. It was a collaborative one. With Saurabh Shukla, but we didn't think it would work. In fact I'd moved on to working on Kaun... when news started coming in that Satya is a hit.

That didn't do too well, did it?

No, actually what happened with Kaun was really strange. Ram Gopal Varma didn't even read the first 12 pages, he just dove right into the film. And then after reading the middle bits, started shooting and didn't even bother to read the end. Plus Kaun was shot in sequence (which meant shot scene by scene - as it was written) so we couldn't make any changes later either. I still wish he had read the whole story first!

So there's Satya, Kaun, and then Shool too right? All with RGV?

Yeah. I was really disappointed with the way Shool turned out. The first half is fine, but then in the second half something went wrong in the film. I felt really let down. I have a lot of respect for RGV though, but I gave up a lot of other stuff to work on Satya that was worth it.

What about your own films? You think they'll ever see light of day?

Don't really know, I hope they do. Well, they're both supposed to this year.

After Paanch gets stuck for some absurd reason, you go ahead and make Black Friday - a movie on the nation's most controversial terrorist attack? You don't learn your lessons?

Actually there was no real problem with Black Friday. It got through the censors. Then just before release, the accused filed a case against us and got a stay on the release. But I am hoping for its release this year. I've a lot of stuff coming out this year. Mixed Doubles has been released and it's got good reviews, it's work that I'm proud of - with new directors and actors. Not stars. Not many of them would wanna work in these scripts.

So you're not really into Bollywood?

Well, I've registered a company called 'Bollywouldn't Productions' (laughs) but I've great respect for a few and if there's one person that I'd do absolutely anything for it would be Mr Maniratnam. He is superb. I worked with him on Yuva and it was great.

And did you always want to write/direct films?

Nope, I remember, when I was a kid, I first wanted to be Amitabh Bachchan. Not be like him, but be him. Like be Amitabh Bachchan. Then, later, I wanted to be a cop. And in the middle sometime I seriously considered being a superhero - complete with wearing undies over my jeans and all.

Who's your fav superhero?

Batman. And Wolverine. And am a huge fan of graphic novels.

Any special mentions?

Apart from V for Vendetta, Sin City, Watchmen and Sandman, I really like this other one, 100 Bullets. And of course I love all the Batman stuff. I wrote this short story - all these women are dying, in the throes of orgasm. There's no evidence except a red cloth and Batman is called to investigate.