Yesterday, I happened to pick up the pending remains of my SoundCloud podcasts and happen to crash into the very famous online Indian podcasting comedy, the All India Bakchod, essentially the Great Indian Bullshitting which almost everyone of us tend to do whenever we happen to have time to waste. In the latest episode, they interviewed a director of whom I'm a great fan of his work - right from his first unreleased film `Paanch` till the latest `Gangs of Wasseypur` art and expecting his next releases, Ugly and Bombay Velvet in extremity.
Anurag Kashyap brings in this layer of freshness in the conversations you make. There is some "thing" as he says which gets his work attracted by others, appreciated by the world and sticks to his regular surprises of his deviations in film ranges and gathers a lot of newer fans per movie. His light humor during the talk can be surprising during those topics of importance which needs to be addressed, a rare quality of satire seen to invoke serious thinking.
The comedians of the podcast literally yap about their poor jokes (sometimes) and their tad slapstick humor which gets annoying after sometime. But not in this one. They found the recording hard to stop and had to literally abrupt due to limited time. Why? The conversation went so far and deep that even their funny bones stopped to tickle and started to ponder with the views the director was giving about films, work ethics and India. And seriously, Anurag has that ability to think practically, sensibly and realistically. I intend to care about these words separately. You'll know why am I exaggerating this in further paragraphs.
Lets begin with the topic, India. He highlights the important, fundamental problems of the day - regression, morality and education which need to be addressed the foremost by everyone in their own limited, individual support. Next comes the participation in movements to which he sounds indifferent to. We need to first look at ourselves rather than pointing fingers at others with a rational discussion than a group mentality. And the truth - India after the next elections, in the next 10 years, will be studied to be a classic example of how to get screwed up even during times of progress, which will be a part of history! Now, that's some serious thinking to do.
Anurag then correlates work culture with his business segment, film-making. But the words he says are irrelevant to a particular industry as such. He says to first do the work and think about the limelight later. I'd say this to all the startup enthusiasts. If you tend to keep your work a bit higher than the middlemen, you can never get your objective fulfilled. As they are the ones who will sell your work! India is being ruled by middlemen, you know. Market your work to gather a larger audience. This comes at a price too - cut your profits and put your work into more eyes. Be it film festivals and free screenings for films or more conferences and hackathons for startups. Build your audience because that's where the money for your next work segment comes from. I now see the pattern of why his films are first screened in festivals and theaters next - a tad which happens in parallel in today's world to gain recognition and money together. He points out the quality of films going to the world audience. We as Indians have this "baniya" mentality of dealing with money all the time. We never want to explore a market where people start recognizing Indian films as universal and not just Indian.
Lastly, the films itself. Taking right calls, market study, people involved in controlling the market, courage to explore, ideas accessible in popular, perceptions of how the world thinks about you, clear thinking of your objectives - either appreciation or the sheer passion of it and dealing with consequences of choices are concerns in any line of work you want to excel in. Finding formulas and repeating them in all your work makes you redundant. Keep constantly deal with things around you.
Wish there was more time to listen to many more topics. Overall, it was a brilliant podcast in recent times to crash by. A recommended one. You can find the link here.