Anurag Kashyap had a fascinating conversation with Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day about his journey, Kennedy, setbacks etc. Recently, Matt Damon, while promoting his film The Rip (2026), revealed that the streaming platform told the makers, “It wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.” It became a huge talking point and Anurag also spoke about it.
Anurag said, “Streaming not just became a revenue model, but it also became home to independent cinema. That’s how it started. It was doing shows and in India, it became home to the kind of cinema which we were dying to make. And then Covid happened. People didn’t know what to do and what to watch. Filmmakers were desperate to start selling their films. People started watching content in different languages. They started consuming Korean dubbed titles in Hindi. It completely altered the way we started films. As a result, the streamers became the most powerful studios. The actual studios started shutting down.”
He added, “That’s a problem not just in India or the Hindi film industry. The world is facing it. Every film that plays and wins at the Sundance Festival, goes nowhere.”
Anurag continued, “Someone from Silicon Valley told me, ‘India is just a dumping ground’. What that means is that data is the new oil. All they want is more subscribers. The country with the largest population in the world will also have the most subscribers. That’s what they went. They want to maximize. They don’t want quality stuff in India. That was not the case in the beginning. They have said it on my face, ‘We want more subscribers. We don’t want you to be complex and intelligent’.”
Anurag Kashyap remarked, “The Matt Damon-Ben Affleck flick, The Rip is the greatest example of how a streamer can destroy a film. What is a rip – that is explained 10 times in the film. Matt Damon’s son died of cancer; this has been repeated four times in the film. Everything gets repetitive and boring. What could have been a great, engaging film became boring because the streaming platform knows that it is only surviving on subscriptions and streaming value. So, instead of increasing the level of content, they want to increase the number of subscribers. They also know that people are distracted by their phones. So, you have to say everything loud.”
Anurag raised laughs as he said, “It's not about I feel like going to the toilet. You have to say ‘I feel like going to the toilet’. Then, you go to the toilet. Then, you say, ‘Now, I am in the toilet’ (laughs)! That’s the level of writing now.”
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