Anurag Kashyap, known for his critically acclaimed films, recently opened up about some of his shelved projects, discussing the mental toll these setbacks have had on him after investing substantial time into creating complex characters.
One such project Kashyap finds hard to move past is the web series ‘Maximum City‘. His neo-noir thriller ‘Kennedy’ was inspired by fragments of a stalled project from the early 2000s. In 2003, director Sudhir Mishra hired Kashyap to write ‘Uss Raat Achanak’, a film that was set to star Sanjay Dutt and Tejaswini Kolhapure. Dutt’s character, Uday Shetty, was based on a 1980s cop, a role that resonated deeply with Kashyap, lingering in his mind even after the project was abandoned.
Anurag Kashyap reveals he suffered two heart attacks after his project ‘Maximum City’ got shelved; says ‘I went into deep depression’
“I was very taken in by the character; he intrigued me a lot, and I always wanted to use him. I even tried multiple times. Once, I convinced (cinematographer-turned-filmmaker) Rajeev Ravi that I’d write it and asked him to make it in Malayalam,” Kashyap shared during a recent film event hosted by the G5A Foundation.
The ‘Maharaja’ actor further revealed that he repeatedly attempted to bring Uday Shetty’s character to life in various projects over the years. During the COVID-19 lockdown, he invested his efforts into ‘Maximum City’, envisioning it as a three-part, nine-hour series. However, just six days before pre-production, the project was unexpectedly shelved. In response, Kashyap channeled his frustration and emotions into writing the first draft of ‘Kennedy’.
Reflecting on the repeated shelving of his projects, especially ‘Maximum City’, Kashyap said, “Inside, I’ve been dying for the last four-five years. I wanted to make ‘Maximum City’, but I couldn’t.”
Meanwhile, two other scripts he wrote, one in 2016 and another in 2019-20, are now in progress, with one film completed and the other close to wrapping up. Kashyap credits ‘Kennedy’ as a pivotal project that helped him rediscover his direction, describing it as a necessary step to move forward. After completing ‘Kennedy’, he consciously avoided taking on projects under external pressure, opting instead to act for a year to maintain his creative freedom. His team has been working non-stop, aiming to complete three films by December.
Kashyap previously revealed that a major OTT platform withdrew its support for his adaptation of Suketu Mehta’s ‘Maximum City’ after the ‘Tandav’ controversy. This incident led Indian streaming platforms to adopt a more cautious approach, resulting in significant shifts in their content policies.
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