Anurag Kashyap criticises Bengali cinema during his visit to Kolkata

Anurag Kashyap said that there has been a fall in the quality of Bengali cinema in recent times. The Kennedy director was in Kolkata to attend the inauguration of the first Kolkata French Film Festival. Later he attended a seminar where he made comments on Bengali cinema. 

At the seminar, the director said that there had been a fall in Hindi films also. However, he said that the fall in Hindi films is not as evident as the fall in the quality of Bengali cinema. “The fall in the quality of Hindi films is a fall from the first floor. Bengali films used to be in a far higher position. And hence, the fall is so evident,” he said.  

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Furthermore, Anurag, in an interview with News 18, said that he doesn’t watch Bengali films anymore. “The last film I watched was (Mrinal Sen’s) Padatik. The films I love I watch more than once,” he said. He further added that he watched Srijit Mukherji’s Autograph and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Antaheen. He confessed that he doesn’t watch Bengali films much. Meanwhile, the director reiterated that almost everything has taken a nosedive all over the world.   

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However, Anurag reminded the media that there was a time when Bengali films used to be class apart. He said that directors like Ritwick Ghatak, and Satyajit Ray made fabulous films. “These days they don’t make such films anymore,” he said, adding that the culture of remakes ruined the quality.