Anurag Kashyap says David Dhawan and Govinda ‘were a remarkable team’

Anurag Kashyap has praised his contemporary filmmaker Rohit Shetty as well as the team of David Dhawan and Govinda. Anurag, who has directed several critically-acclaimed films over the course of his career, said David Dhawan and Govinda were a remarkable team and credited the filmmaker with establishing a genre of mainstream cinema in India. Also read: Vivek Agnihotri slams Anurag Kashyap for judging Kashmir Files without watching

David Dhawan and Govinda gave several hits together in the 1990s and 2000s, including Shola Aur Shabnam, Raja Babu, Coolie No. 1, Saajan Chale Sasural, Hero No. 1 (1997), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998), Kyo Kii… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta (2001), and Partner.

In an interview with Galatta Plus, Anurag said, “I enjoy watching mainstream a lot; good mainstream. Our mainstream today has become very bad, quality wise. The only person whose own self and honesty you see (in his films) is Rohit Shetty, which is why you enjoy him. The rest of them are just trying to copy what works, they are trying to be something else. Rohit has taken time to come into his own. He realised he is good at action, so he started controlling that, and it shows.”

Anurag added that he credits David Dhawan with establishing this genre of cinema. “I will argue with his sensibility, I will argue with his politics, I will argue with other things. But he is as mainstream as Hindi cinema can get. Last was David Dhawan, who was a genre in himself. I call David Dhawan an auteur, because he genuinely created that (kind of cinema). He and Govinda were a remarkable team. But nothing else… Nobody really understands the world they are living in,” he added.

Anurag’s last film Dobaaraa released in theatres this June. The Taapsee Pannu-starrer was a massive box office failure, earning just ₹7 crore in its lifetime.