The digital platform gives me freedom’: Anurag Kashyap

Last June, when Sacred Games premiered on Netflix, it was not only the streaming platform’s first Indian original series but was also immensely appreciated for its gritty plot and riveting performances. Based on author Vikram Chandra’s best-selling novel by the same name, it was directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane and featured Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Neeraj Kabi, Kubra Sait, Jitendra Joshi, Rajshri Deshpande as well as Pankaj Tripathi. The second season will be aired this year and its shooting is already underway. While Saif started filming it last December, Pankaj faced the camera for it earlier this month in Cape Town. Anurag, who is helming the second part, too, tells After Hrs how OTT platforms provide a huge relief to filmmakers.

Are you still basking in the success of Sacred Games?

Success or failure, I always have the same reaction; I simply disappear. Having said that, we didn’t know it would do so well. It made my audience visible to me. For years, people have told me that they love my films and I always asked them where have you watched them because most of the times, they don’t run for long at theatres. It has taken me years to understand the dynamics of it. My audience comprises working professionals who don’t have time on a Friday to stand in a queue to buy movie tickets. When they finally get the time, the movie is out of theatres, so they download them. But that’s the same audience that feels comfortable to pay a monthly subscription on an international streaming platform and watch my films. Suddenly, digital platforms are giving me the freedom and the budget that they won’t give anyone else.

It must be liberating for you as there are no restrictions and censorship issues?

It’s a relief. I’ve never been afraid of the Censor because I was fighting it when I didn’t understand it. But now, I don’t fight it, I have understood the process. If you are willing to go right till the Supreme Court, nothing will be cut in your film.

Today, with the digital space being perceived differently, do you think it has given filmmakers more confidence to jump on to this bandwagon?

I don’t know. There are academics who study these aspects. I spent so many years of my life with no plan. I will neither waste my time to see where the world is heading nor to analyse my success or failure. I like to do certain things. If somebody will shut the doors for me, I will find another window. That’s why by default, I’ve become the first person to explore every territory. I’ve never had a five-year plan. I neither live in the past nor in the future. I live in the present.