‘Kennedy’ Director Anurag Kashyap & ‘In Flames’ Team Talk South Asian Unity, Using Cinema To Push Back Against Hate
deadline.comA group of South Asian filmmakers, including Indian director Anurag Kashyap (Kennedy) and the team behind Pakistani Directors Fortnight title In Flames talked on a Cannes panel about how cinema can cross the political barriers that are keeping their countries apart.
Tensions between India and Pakistan are making it difficult for films and filmmakers to travel between each other’s countries, despite the popularity of Indian cinema in Pakistan, and the recent rise of Pakistani films on the world stage, including In Flames and last year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner, Joyland.
Kashyap, who is in Cannes with neo-noir thriller Kennedy playing Out Of Competition, said a new generation of young producers from different South Asian countries is helping talent from the region to work together and introducing global audiences to the whole region’s films: “These young producers makes a difference because they don’t have any boundaries,” Kashyap said.
In Flames director Zarrar Kahn agreed and name-checked his own producer, Canada-based Shant Joshi, who was also speaking on the panel, and Apoorva Baskhi (Delhi Crime, The Glassworker), who like many of this new generation, works between South Asia and the US. “International opportunities are happening because these producers are coming through from more established industries and helping South Asian collaboration grow,” said Kahn. “And that is how growth is going to happen – as a community.” Anadil Hossain, a US and Bangladesh-based producer, who co-produced Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, agreed there’s a growing sense of solidarity: “I’ve been a great ambassador for Bollywood over the years, but was never really accepted because I’m not Indian.
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