There can never be a dull moment with Anurag Kashyap around! Never one to mince words, leave alone stay silent, the filmmaker simply must react - and vociferously so! - to everything that he does not agree with. The recent panel discussion at the MAMI movie mela was naturally  just waiting to happen!'

The session featured five popular directors - Anurag Kashyap, Nitesh Tiwari, Kabir Khan, Alankrita Srivastava, Ayan Mukerji – who had come together to discuss the business of cinema. All was apparently smooth sailing all through the panel discussion, till the floor was thrown open to the audience for questions. That’s when a fan directed a question at the filmmaker, which clearly got Anurag’s goat...

The question was admittedly a slightly prickly one - Why do directors focus on budgets and star cast instead of good content? Our man Kashyap, in no mood to discuss it calmly, jumped up to counter, “When people in the audience go ahead to watch films which are high on content, then directors will start giving less importance to big budget and big stars.” That reply should have made our question-asker subside quietly into his seat, but no, the man went on to inform, “I do watch small budget films.”

Anurag, who knew he hadn’t made his point properly yet, replied “Sir sirf aapke akele film dekhne se mere film ka ek shot bhi pura nahi ho sakta. It's that everyone needs to go,” he retorted, speaking of how a small budget film, high on content film needs the support of greater numbers of audiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1L1ud-yLnQ

Even as Anurag tried explaining his point, the film buff, mic in hand, continued to put forward his own point of view. It reached a point where a visibly irritated Anurag all but hollered, “Sir aapko answer sun na hai ya apna hi bata te rehna hai?” He did appear to hit the nail on the head with that one!

But no, the drama did not escalate further and there no more fireworks in store as the mic passed on to the next person with a question. Did we actually see the disappointment on Kashyap’s face after that?!