I Don't Consider Myself an Indulgent Filmmaker

DIRECTOR Anurag Basu is cheerful and chatty when we speak to him over the phone, post the release of his latest musical, relationship-drama Metro...In Dino.

- Anurag Basu

He isn't much for going too deep into the artistic process. He doesn't take it high-handedly ("It's all organic," "there is no set formula"). The film, featuring an impressive ensemble of Pankaj Tripathi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Alia Fazal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sara Ali Khan, Neena Gupta and Saswata Chatterjee, released last Friday and Anurag, although happy with the responses, is on a wait-and-watch mode. The film business is a fickle one.

We speak to the director about his process of coming up with hyper-linked narratives, musical influences, his views on modern love, and if he thinks of the box office before making a film.

Excerpts:

How are you taking the responses to the film?

I am happy at the moment but it is too early to make a conclusion. People's reactions and reviews have been favourable, and hopefully, they will turn into numbers.

Since Life in a...Metro (2007) and then Ludo (2020), hyperlinked narrative is becoming your USP. Do film ideas come to you as a string of multiple stories?

I think if we look into our lives, we will realise that everything that happens is somehow connected with the lives of our family members and our friends. Our lives are a result of the chaotic domino effect of the stories of other people. It's just that we have to be creative to showcase that on the big screen. The earlier Metro took some time, but Metro...In Dino was relatively easier to write.

How so?