Anurag Kashyap is known for his honest views off-screen which are as hard-hitting as his movies. The film-maker has spoken about leaving Mumbai, Hindi cinema in the past and moving to the south. And now, the film-maker has recounted an experience with a renowned OTT platform which left him heartbroken.

Kashyap revealed his long-standing connection to the book Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, which he had been working to adapt since 2004. Despite completing the adaptation, the project has hit a frustrating standstill. He said during an interview with The Juggernaut, “I was working with Suketu and I was researching the book, and I have been wanting to do it ever since 2004. I have adapted it. I have done the adaptation, but it’s stuck.

I have been with the book for 21 years,” Kashyap said. “The scripts are done but the project is kind of stalled. I desperately want to bring it to life.” The ‘Dev D’ director recounted how much he had poured into the project—writing everything by hand, investing over a year and a half into the screenplay. “I hand write my scripts. I handwrote 900 pages. So when you put so much effort in a project and for others it’s just a matter of… like you can’t evaluate that in money.

Somebody just to save their jobs put it aside and ghosts you… it breaks you,” he explained. The film was supposed to be a Netflix original, but according to Kashyap, the platform abruptly cut off communication. “It was an emotional investment. Till date, Netflix doesn’t understand what makes me so angry about them. Somebody’s one and half years of work where you write with your hand was disregarded. It was supposed to be a Netflix project and they ghosted me.

They didn’t even have the courage to walk to me and tell that ‘we are having a problem.

Can we solve it?’ or even ‘we are not doing it.’ They didn’t have the courage.” He added that he hasn’t even received an email from them. When asked whether the project might be revived, his tone was tinged with uncertainty and disillusionment: “I don’t know if they can bring it back. There’s a whole policy. I don’t understand it. I have cut myself off from the producers and everybody else because I don’t know what the producer did on it.

My emotional investment was just a simple decision without even reading it, or feedback or notes.

That has been my biggest heartbreak in life.” Since the fallout, Kashyap has not shied away from publicly criticizing Netflix, especially the way its India operations function. “I started the debate because they don’t understand India. They do the same kind of shitty stuff. What India office tells them, they believe that bullshit.

They are doing exactly what bad television was doing to India. And they are charging money for it,” he said. His frustration runs deeper than just one project. He feels Netflix is out of touch with the content that truly resonates with Indian audiences. “What makes me angry is they pat their own back for the show that they didn’t have the courage to produce. They acquired it. All good shows on Netflix are acquired,” Kashyap stated. Pointing to global and Indian successes that didn’t originate from Netflix’s in-house production, he continued: “Squid Game was acquired, but when they produced it, you saw the result. The second season. Adolescence, Black Warrant, and all the good shows are acquired. What they don’t believe in is the only thing that works. They won’t promote shows like Kohhra, Trial by Fire. And these are the shows that actually work for them.

They are so driven by algorithm. They are only interested in subscriptions.”