After Made In Heaven 2, Anurag Kashyap has donned the acting hat yet again for Akshat Ajay Sharma's Haddi, which is releasing on Zee5 on 7 September. The film also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ila Arun in key roles.
The Quint caught up with Anurag to speak about whether he likes acting, the discussion around representation in Hindi films and shows, depicting violence in his movies and more. He also weighed in on the recent Made In Heaven 2 copyright controversy.
Speaking about representation Anurag said, "We are taking baby steps in the right direction. It's great to have a conversation around representation. This was much-needed, and a lot of credit goes to younger people who are doing things we could only think about. When we had approached transpeople to play the role of Kukoo in Sacred Games, they refused because they hadn't come out. Cut to now, where we see Ivanka Das being cast in Ghoomer and Trinetra Halder being a part of Made In Heaven 2. With them, so many more people are getting the courage to come out. Now, the next step for them is to do acting workshops. If they want to pursue acting as a career they have to get better at their craft, because at the end of the day it also needs to work on the screen as a performance. The responsibility is equally ours as it is theirs."
Anurag weighed in on author Yashica Dutt's statement, wherein she called out the makers of Made In Heaven 2, namely Neeraj Ghaywan, Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, for misappropriating her life and work in the Radhika Apte episode. Dutt's statement was followed by a response from the team, wherein they said, "We categorically deny any claim that Ms Dutt's life or work was appropriated by us." They also listed works and authors the episode paid a hat-tip to.
Offering his point of view Anurag said,
"What is it that you are asking credit for? Something is already out there and there have been conversations of acknowledgement. The filmmaker comes out and acknowledges it on his social media. When you want more than that, you need to have a conversation. When you threaten, you are putting everyone in a corner. The filmmaker is not the show-runner. I am aware of the filmmaker's journey as well. He is representing his community. I have seen his journey. He didn't come out until much later. He then found courage and started doing something for his own people."
Anurag added, "In order for your larger-than-life acknowledgement that you want, which you are completely entitled to, you are cancelling a person who is doing a larger job than you are. Is the representation more important or you yourself? My biggest problem is, when you attack the one voice that's representing you and that voice backs off, you are doing a much larger damage to the fight."
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