Anurag Kashyap Slams Film Industry’s Focus on Spectacle Over Substance

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has raised serious questions about the growing obsession with the "pan-India" label in Indian cinema. Known for his straightforward opinions, Kashyap believes that the trend has moved far from quality storytelling and has become more about flashy visuals and high-stake investments that rarely pay off.

In a recent interview with The Hindu, Kashyap didn’t hold back in describing the pan-India wave as a “massive scam.” He questioned how a film can be declared pan-India even before its release. “A film becomes pan-India only if it performs pan-India. How can a film be labeled as pan-India before it’s even made?” he asked.

According to Kashyap, the production timeline of such films stretches across years, involving large teams and massive budgets. However, he said most of this money is spent on creating grand sets rather than strengthening the script. “Much of the budget goes into extravagant sets rather than meaningful content or storytelling,” he pointed out.

Kashyap also criticised filmmakers for following a formulaic approach in an attempt to chase the success of blockbusters like Baahubali and KGF. He argued that the industry is stuck in a cycle of imitating what worked in the past, without considering whether the story actually demands such treatment. “To meet the demands of huge earnings, filmmakers resort to inserting an ‘item’ or a flashy sequence every few minutes, but this approach doesn’t serve the film in the long run,” he noted.

While acknowledging the massive success of a few titles, Kashyap reminded that such hits represent only a fraction of the total output. “Only 1% of these films work,” he said, adding that these rare successes fuel the illusion that the model is working, encouraging more filmmakers to jump on the bandwagon.

He also cited examples like Stree 2 and Uri, which found success without being labelled pan-India from the beginning. According to him, such films performed well due to strong storytelling and not just spectacle.

Kashyap concluded that the industry’s focus on numbers over narrative has led to a sharp decline in storytelling depth across mainstream Indian cinema.