At a panel discussion during IIT-B’s ongoing festival Mood I, director Anurag Kashyap addressed the debacle of Bombay Velvet.
In conversation with Bharathi Pradhan, Ramesh Sippy and Rajkumar Hirani about the evolution of cinema, Anurag acknowledged the things that led to the film’s downfall — his arrogance being one them. “Bombay Velvet lost so much money that it was the combined cost of all my movies put together. I was experimenting with narrative storytelling. I guess there was also a bit of arrogance involved. Gangs of Wasseypur was also a narrative but there was a voiceover explaining everything. With Bombay Velvet, I refused to explain and that’s how the narrative failed. I took the audience for granted.
“It was such a time lapse. People did not know the brief Jazz period in those days and taking people uninitiated, into that era and making an art film worth '90 crore somewhere did not work well.
“I stepped back and became so vulnerable with all the negativity in the press that I allowed the film to become what it became. Failure is always a director’s fault because he doesn’t say ‘no’ to things that he has to,” he says.
He continues, “Till date when I go to sleep, I play the whole film in my head and re-edit it. A lot of other people invested in my dream and lost money; if the film had worked, it would have empowered a lot of other people. It would have paved way for a lot of other filmmakers. I don’t need a blockbuster; I simply want to recover the money back. For me the biggest motivator is failure, it is the best teacher. I know I can’t sit back and relax.”
The experience hasn’t weakened his resolve to make films though.
“I’m in a country where my films were banned and I’m still making movies; my films bombed and I’m still making movies. I only want to make movies,” he adds.
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