Middle-class Maharashtrian life, a brutal retelling of 2016âs demonetisation fiasco and a surprisingly warm directorial effort from the Gangs of Wasseypur legend - Anurag Kashyap is a man whoâs come far in Bollywood and left a mark on Indian cinema thatâs left many drawing parallels between him and Quentin Tarantino - with bloodshed, slick and relentless dialogue mashed with picture-perfect pacing making an appearance in all his films.

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Choked, however, feels decidedly different. 

Zooming in on the interweaving stories of a single apartment complex and a single family, Kashyap tones down the intensity and reveals a side to himself as a storyteller that weâve rarely seen before - here are some excerpts from his exclusive interview with MensXP where he discusses his creative shifts, opinions on film and challenges with making Choked a reality.

How Satisfied Are You With The Film?

âIâm very happy with the film. Itâs a labour of love and I think Iâve successfully been able to keep out my political biases - it feels like it's the characters, not like Anurag Kashyap has told them to say anything. It looks and feels effortless. To me, they are living and feeling that life and they are experiencing those changes. 

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In Bollywood, when youâre making a film, the budget of the film usually gets decided on the basis of who is in it, so we have to struggle a lot when making a film the way it's supposed to be made. This film had to be shot the right way. We got to shoot in a housing society thatâs under renovation - working with a green screen to make sure that the kitchen scenes with the flooding money and water could be captured.

Also, working with actors who were right for the role, instead of just finding faces - itâs just been a very satisfying experience to make this film.â

Youâve Mentioned How This Film Is Free Of Political Biases, But Is There Some Subtle Commentary In There?

âEverybody has their own politics. A character can have his own politics, while mine can be very extreme. Everyoneâs politics depends upon their realities. 

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Letâs take the example of Sushant, Roshan Mathewâs character. He has the feeling that heâs greater than the work thatâs being offered to him - and is happy in thinking this, something that his buddies reinforce. Take Saiyamiâs character, Sarita - sheâs a busy working woman who doesnât have the time to care about politics - she simply wants to come home to a clean house.

I cannot make any of these characters me, because I have the privilege. I have people who will inform me, correct me if I say something wrong or if Iâm misinformed. [These characters] donât have that.â

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How Much Of Your Responsibility Towards Society Becomes Part Of The Cinema That You Make?

âI feel that a filmmaker should be a chronicler of time. A filmmaker cannot be a propagandist. Aaj kal, thereâs loads of propagandist films being made - theyâve already chosen sides. 

If weâre talking about a Mukkabaaz where thereâs a lynching scene, Iâm just showing things as they happen. Iâm not giving it a separate kind of twist, all the people here coexist while gaining and losing. This is something I like about Paatal Lok as well - it portrays not what the world should be, but what the world is. Sometimes, every solution leads to a problem.

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If I try to create a film that answers or acts as a counter to a propagandist film, even the film I make becomes propaganda. If I put in my ideology and become self-righteous as a filmmaker, thatâs also propaganda. This is why my films are still relevant - because they show both sides.â

How Did The Idea For The Film Convince You?

âI loved the idea of a housewife running short of money and finding it in the kitchen sink. Itâs a very David Fincher kind of an idea. 

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This film was picked up in 2015, before demonetisation happened. It was just a script about marriage and about a woman finding money coming out of the sink. When I read the script, I thought it was a great premise but it wasnât landing and we kept struggling to make the script land properly. 

And one-and-a-half years after weâd acquired the script, demonetisation happened. And that made the idea more relevant. Then, I went on to shoot Mukkabaaz and Nihit Bhave went back to rewriting the script. Itâs been a six-year process - what youâre seeing is what we made six years after acquiring the script.â

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What Do You Feel About Films Releasing On OTT Platforms Instead Of Theatres?

âI came to terms with it a long time back, yaar. I found most of my audiences online - so now the benefit comes directly to me as a filmmaker. 

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If Iâm making a film that retains complexity, that is only for the âlearnedâ kind of audience or a certain kind of audience, this is a platform where I can reach out to them directly. [When it comes to the cinematic experience], you win some and you lose some - Iâve always been told that my audience is not a family audience. 

I stopped waiting to see the consequence of a film Iâve made long back - when a film gets over, Iâve already moved on to the next, which Iâll do when the lockdown gets over. I donât wait.â

Whatâs Your Opinion On How The Lockdown Has Been Handled In India?

âI assume that nobody really knows whatâs going to happen, this has been an unprecedented situation. The thing is, there are two kinds of leaders weâre looking at here - those who have an intention of dealing with it, finding solutions and making lives better, and those who are mostly interested in self-preservation than actually dealing with the lockdown.

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Everybody is currently looking at people who can simply suggest ideas on how to find solutions - solutions to the economy, solutions to the pandemic⦠a lot of people have to deal with this crisis head-on.â

You can watch Choked on Netflix.

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