Anurag Kashyap brings 'Gangs of Wasseypur' to the UK

Anurag Kashyap may have been branded a torch-bearer of new-age Indian cinema but the filmmaker says he hates carrying any such burden.

"I hate being a poster boy, because a he eventually becomes a dart board. I never consciously carried any kind of burden of new-wave Indian cinema but people have a tendency to label you. All I felt was that if there were more filmmakers who made cinema I relate to, then I could also co-exist. It would increase my chances of survival," Kashyap told PTI.

In London to promote 'Gangs of Wasseypur', which releases across Britain on February 23, Kashyap described the two-part gritty gangster flick as his most commercial film till date.

"I am very keen to see how it does in the UK. I know a lot of audiences here who have been waiting to watch it on the big screen. I hope it will benefit from all the word of mouth. The audience around the world have just enjoyed it. There has been a lot of analysis in India, but we tend to do that in India."

The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year and proved a box-office hit in India, is set in the mine fields of Wasseypur in Jharkhand and was shot almost entirely in Kashyap's own hometown of Obra in Bihar.

"The only reason I was able to do everything was because I shot it in the town where me and my brother (fellow filmmaker Abhinav Kashyap) grew up. I used all my father's contacts, who was a senior engineer based there. People opened up their homes to me and were so excited about the film being shot there.

"Major on-screen blast sequences would have cost crores but I got them for free as I was told to just land up with my camera when a mine blast was happening," said Kashyap. Kashyap has often been compared to Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino as a result of a similar streak of brazen gun fights in 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and second part, which opens in the UK on March 2.

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