Anurag Kashyap’s Yudh did not strike the right chord with the audience despite the presence of Amitabh Bachchan — and the creator of the mini-series attributes the failure to ad breaks and the public’s refusal to accept the megastar as a frail character.
The psychological-thriller was touted to be the next big thing on television this year thanks to the stellar presence of Big B, Sarika, Nawazuddin Siddiqui among others. Kashyap, 42, said he has learnt a lesson with the failure of his maiden small screen venture and has no plans to return to television anytime soon.
“I will take some time before I do something on TV again. Yudh did not work. We got to learn a lot from its failure. The ad breaks changed the mood of the show. We were trying to make something atmospheric but the ads broke the rhythm and mood of the story. Even True Detective with breaks would appear slow, he said.
The director said that getting Bachchan on board also did not work for them as the audience declined to watch the 72-year-old actor in a non larger-than-life role.
“The audience did not accept Amitabh Bachchan as the frail character he played. They want to see him in larger-than-life roles. Shows like this should be made with unknown faces, non-fan base actors but with such actors you will not get a big budget.
“Even if you get it, you will have to get rid of ads. Then you will have to pay from your pocket. Outside of India, it has worked because there are paid channels. We realised all this after doing Yudh. We were all very happy that we did it but then the result was not desirable,” he said.
Kashyap, who earlier gave a modern-day twist to Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Bengali novel Devdas in his film Dev D, said that classics such as Bandini directed by Bimal Roy could be made today with proper changes.
“A new adaptation of Bandini can definitely be made. The essence of the story is timeless. The situation may not be but the story is relevant,” he said.
The filmmaker said that he grew up watching Roy’s movies.
“I did not see Satyajit Ray until I was 35. The films that I actually grew up watching were Bimal Roy’s movies and the mainstream movies of the 1970s,” he added.
