Anurag Kashyap says he was ‘bored’ of expectations to make a gangster movie: ‘Wrote a lot of other people’s scripts…’

Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming film Kennedy is one of the two Indian titles at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Anurag, who has premiered several of his films at Cannes over the years, and is known for making gritty, dark films has now revealed the reason why he made the romantic musical Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat- which was seen as a departure from the director’s style. (Also read: Sunny Leone reveals how she auditioned for Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy: ‘Worst exam I have taken in my entire life’)

Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy stars Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat in pivotal roles. The director took to Instagram to share the official poster of the film, and wrote in the caption: “Aankh, Cannes sab khule rakhna…Kennedy aa raha hai! (Keep your eyes, as well as Cannes open, because Kennedy is here!) Here’s the official poster of #Kennedy, which is set to premiere at Festival De Cannes later next month!” The official poster shows Rahul Bhat’s character in a face-mask, holding a gun. Sunny Leone’s character can be spotted in the retro-themed poster too.

Now, in a conversation with Variety, Anurag revealed the reason why he made his last film Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat. “I’ve liked everything that I’ve done. For me personally, I will not do what I don’t want to do. But sometimes in between, after Psycho Raman came a phase where this whole Phantom [the company set up by Kashyap and his partners that shuttered] fiasco that happened, the lockdown that happened, there were a lot of things going on,” said the director.

Anurag further added, “I worked a lot on other people’s scripts. I wrote a lot of other people’s scripts and only one that I wrote was Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, which was an idea that originated out of nowhere and I wanted to explore that because I was bored of people always expecting me to go back and create another gangster movie. Unless you get something new and exciting that happens why would I do it?”

Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat was a romantic musical that starred Karan Mehta and Alaya F in pivotal roles. It revolved around modern-day young relationships and their exploration in a world plagued with prejudices, predatory behaviour, and the unwillingness of older generations. Presented by Good Bad Films and Zee Studios, it was released in theatres on February 3, 2023, and was available in streaming on Netflix from March 31.