Gangs of Wasseypur earned 26 crore in nine days before being yanked from screens to make room for Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger, according to Anurag Kashyap.
No matter how unsettling the remarks may be, Anurag Kashyap has never shied away from planting truth bombs in his films. Be it criticizing the stars’ unorganized payment systems or celebrities rejecting his films because of the star cast. He has now spoken out against the uneven distribution of venues and accused them of being to blame for the demise of indie films.
As a result of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan, which is presently the buzz of the town, two films have already cancelled to make room for King Khan. However, it is obvious that the reason these films were delayed has not been stated.
Anurag Kashyap has now spoken out about how large films are to blame for the quick and untimely demise of indie cinema. He used his movie Gangs of Wasseypur as an excellent example to describe the phenomena, and he disclosed that Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger had a negative impact on the movie’s box office.
Anurag Kashyap revealed, “Today, people talk highly about Gangs of Wasseypur, but it was taken off cinemas in nine days because a big film like Ek Tha Tiger was coming. It wasn’t the decision of a star or a producer, and it was the decision of the theaters. If that film had done a business of Rs 26 cr in nine days, it would have done more if it got space. So the system is such, and we don’t even have enough cinemas.”
The filmmaker even revealed why he changed his streak of filmmaking owing to such unequal distribution, “I’ve chosen to make my kind of films in the atmosphere where I understand why it works and why it doesn’t. So the consequences are also mine, as long as I don’t lose money for others. That’s a lesson I’ve learnt, so I keep my budgets low.”
While contrasting the Hindi Film Industry and other industries in the south, the filmmaker revived the North vs. South argument. He compared Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam films, saying, “I think Hindi has a template. It is also heavily controlled by the trade, box office, star system. The latter is there even in the South but look at the Tamil film industry, they’ve given five hits with first time filmmakers and not with big stars. There’s a certain kind of equality. In Malayalam, they don’t do so many promotions, just straight up drop their films. In Tamil Nadu, everyone gets to promote with an equal amount, there’s a ceiling to it. But here, a big film’s promotion will dominate and a small film will disappear. Even theater owners don’t give space, but equal space is given there.”
Given that Gangs of Wasseypur had a successful run at the box office before it vanished, the analogies seem to be accurate. The Hindi Box Office, however, had previously been dominated by South Indian films until this year, when Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan took over. This was followed by Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2, Akshay Kumar & Pankaj Tripathi’s OMG 2, and most recently, Ayushmann Khurrana & Ananya Panday’s Dream Girl 2.
