Anubhav Sinha on facing flak for Ra.One: ‘It haunts you for years, I was exhausted’

Anubhav Sinha has quite a few filmmaking ideas up his sleeve, including his next project with Ayushmann Khurrana which is a “bigger film in its scope and what it can change.” The filmmaker, is however, in no hurry to begin shooting for the project amid coronavirus pandemic.

Talking about shooting in present conditions, Anubhav told Mumbai Mirror in an interview, “I’m not bullish about shooting soon. For the next year-and-a-half, shoots will become slower and at least 20 per cent more expensive since a lot of money will be spent on protecting the people who work with you. Social distancing on a film set Is an oxymoron. It can’t happen, it won’t happen. We can keep lying to ourselves though.”

His next with Ayushmann will be a political thriller and would be very different from his previous work. Anubhav had made his directorial debut with emotional drama Tum Bin in 2001 but has now taken up a very different style of filmmaking. He has delivered three back-to-back critically acclaimed films: Mulk, Article 15 and Thappad. But his 2011 film Ra.One, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor, got panned upon release.

Sharing how the response for the film affected him, the Thappad director said, “I have been relentless these pass three decades. I’ve fallen, stood up and fallen again. When you make the biggest film in the history of Bollywood, Ra.One, and get so much flak, it drains you... haunts you for years. I was exhausted physically and emotionally. So I am actually happy doing nothing.” He however adds that he will make one superhero film for sure before he retires.

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He had earlier told Hindustan Times about how his focus has changed in filmmaking. On being asked about what led to such a change, he had said, “I have no clue, I am still trying to figure out. Till Mulk and Article 15, I used to deny that there is a change. Now I feel there is certainly a change, what kind of change, I don’t know. Now I get attracted to different things - story or a performance. Earlier I used to get attracted to grand visuals, size of the film and how big the starcast was. Now I am not attracted to these things.”

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