Quotes from Anurag Kashyap

Films are like oxygen for me.

One must go for a film with an open mind; a film best impacts you when your mind is a blank page to the film.

The quality of mainstream cinema has changed. A lot of independent voices feel they can leave everything behind and make independent films.

I shoot reality-based movies, and in actual locations, shooting them with a star is next to impossible.

I think the perspective that small-town directors bring to films is very different.

There shouldn't be any censorship on making a film.

Chennai is the birthplace of a new language in cinema. The audiences here are the most evolved moviegoers to be found anywhere in India.

All those pseudo-Hollywood movies set nowhere, with everybody good looking and having great physique - that's not working any more.

'The Dark Knight' is a really good movie that reached both critics and mainstream audiences.

If you get validation from outside, then suddenly everything you do at home is justified.

Indian films have this obsession with hygienic clean spaces, even though the country's not so clean. They're either shot in the studios or shot in London, in America, in Switzerland - clean places. Everywhere except India.

Politicians need a film appreciation course.

Politicians take something out of context to create problems.

I'm very emotional and possessive about all my films.

I didn't ask anyone to make me a poster boy, because poster boys always end up on dart boards.

I am a straight talker. I am not politically correct or diplomatic.

The West sometimes doesn't understand Bollywood, but they can definitely understand how Bollywood influences people.

India needs better producers than screenwriters. No producer wants to invest in out-of-the way scripts.

When I'm making a film, I don't want my producer to be on the sets. So when I'm producing a film, I don't want to be on the sets!

The lower the cost of the film, the more you can experiment.

In India, there is a psychological problem that movies going to film festivals are boring. It is a problem with exhibitors.

'Aiyyaa' is a very quirky film.

Fans are your greatest enemies because they tend to bracket you. And the moment someone expects I should do something, I break out. I often tell fans who say, 'Make a 'Gulal 2' or 'Gangs 3,' that I am living my dream, not theirs.

In 'Gangs of Wasseypur,' I wanted to take violence forward and play it up.