Not made `Gangs of Wasseypur` to bring in change: Anurag

Mumbai: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who doubts whether films really bring about a change, says he made his upcoming film `Gangs of Wasseypur` not to break away from the usual, but only because he found the subject interesting.

Directed-produced and co-written by Anurag, `Gangs of Wasseypur`, a crime film, explores a revenge saga through the socio-political dynamic in a place called Wasseypur in Jharkhand about the coal and scrap trade mafia. "I have not made the film to change things. I am not an NGO. I found the characters and the place interesting, hence I made the film. I don`t know if anything will change or not. I doubt if anything changes through films," Anurag said. "When such things appear in news and no action is taken despite there being evidence, what can my film do? It does not happen at those levels. Till the time elections come, nothing will happen," he chuckled. "But in a way I think it is the right time to release the film as people are aware of what is happening. At least they would like to know what the film is about. The film is relevant in that sense," he added. Anurag has spent one-and-half-year on research, to get the facts before making `Gangs of Wasseypur`. "We spent one-and-half-year on research. There even kids on the streets know what is happening. People are quite afraid to go there, but if you do and research you can get material. Local papers report about it. Today, most of the mafia is making inroads into building material, scrap and all that," Anurag said. "I have stuck to the political and social scenario of Wasseypur. We have stuck to reality. In terms of story, we have fictionalised it, but the incidents and all that you see is 90 per cent true," he said. "There are parts that are not true in the story, like the stepson in the film. In reality he is not the stepson. Some characters who have died in the film are actually alive. So 90 per cent characters, incidents do exist. We had to fictionalise and camouflage things, which we had to do, so that it does not affect anybody living or dead directly," he added. Meanwhile, film`s writer Syed Zeishan Qadri, who has spent his entire life in Wasseypur, has been getting threatening calls challenging him to dare and return to his hometown. "I would not comment on that as Zeishan`s phone is off. We haven`t been in touch with him. Right now we need to know what exactly is happening. We want to show our film to people over there. The film focuses on three families. `Gangs of Wasseypur` is about two families who stay there and one family from Dhanbad," Kashyap said. "When they (people of Wasseypur) see the film, there won`t be any problems, everything would be clear. Right now, they are basing their assumptions on trailers. If we would have shown everything real, then it might be a problem. We have made it fictional in a way. We are talking about two families there (in Wasseypur), who the people over there would know. And these families know what we are doing," he said. As there is so much to tell the audience, Anurag initially made a five-hour movie, but now `Gangs of Wasseypur` will be shown in two parts. "When we were shooting, we were thinking of three parts; we wrote three different scripts. We combined half of second part to be integrated in part one and other in part two. It is one film, but we had to make it in parts. I think two parts are not enough, it could have become a TV series," Kashyap said. "The TV in this country is the worst. `Black Friday` got rejected as a TV series, so it became a film. `Black Friday` was supposed to be five-six part TV series for a news channel, but it got rejected. We are happy that it got made into a film," he said. The first part of `Gangs of Wasseypur` is set to release on June 22, while the announcement for the second part will be made on the day the film opens in cinema houses. PTI