Anurag Kashyap equates streaming platforms to East India Company; laments state of independent films : Bollywood News

Anurag Kashyap is one of the first filmmakers who started working on OTT projects. Post the success of Sacred Games, Anurag has frequently worked on OTT projects. Recently, the renowned director, who is attending the ongoing Cannes Film Festival for the world premiere of his film Kennedy, shared his thoughts on streaming platforms. He also compared streaming platforms to “East India Company.”

Anurag Kashyap equates streaming platforms to East India Company; laments state of independent films

In a conversation with Forbes India, Anurag was asked to shed some light on the state of independent cinema in India. He said, “Independent cinema, right now, is in a very bad and confused place, because of the lockdown. Streaming kind of became the space for Indian cinema, but during the lockdown, even mainstream cinema started going streaming. So, streamers also prefer that over a lot of independent cinema. Now, you have to grab attention to survive.”

The Choked director further added, “It’s like every business. They come in and they are your best friend. They are like the East India Company. All the streamers are like that. They come in, they are your best friends, then they are the colonisers and then they start ruling you.”

While concluding, Kashyap said, “Slowly, you will see what will happen. They will shut down theatres because theatres are enemies.”

Coming back to his latest project, Kennedy, it is headlined by Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone. Kennedy is a police noir drama and amongst the three feature films from India to be the official selections at the Cannes Film Festival this year.

Also Read: Chiyaan Vikram clarifies on Anurag Kashyap’s claim of reaching out to him for Kennedy; latter responds