Why Bollywood rejected Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet

The reaction to Bombay Velvet (2015) might be a bit harsh, but a frenzied reaction from either end of the spectrum is but a sure-shot sign of just how high the expectations might have been. Up until its release, there was a great buzz surrounding Bombay Velvet thanks to the commingling of one of the biggest stars in Hindi cinema, Ranbir Kapoor, and a maverick filmmaker whose name is practically synonymous with terms such as "avant-garde" and "visionary", Anurag Kashyap. While a film's failure to launch or being panned across the board by audiences, critics, and even the believers, shouldn't be the yardstick to castigate the talents associated with it, the abysmal opening that Bombay Velvet got, or the manner in which the film was written off right after the first show, warrants a deeper look.

Had Bombay Velvet hit the box office bull's eye, it would have undoubtedly changed the way certain films got made. The meeting of the mainstream and the slipstream - created by Anurag Kashyap, who, has one foot in hardcore commercial films via writing screenplay or dialogues and the other in a world of gems such as Udaan (2010) - had it become a reality, might have probably ushered in a phase where off-mainstream or indie filmmakers might have become less of the pariahs they seem to actors who happen to be superstars. Maybe that explains the degree of disappointment in Bombay Velvet.

From a financial viewpoint, there can hardly be any debate about the fact that Bombay Velvet is an unmitigated disaster, at least till now. Here is an interesting factoid to put things in perspective. Made on a rumoured budget of Rs 120 crore, Bombay Velvet's opening day collection was Rs 5 crore (give or take a few lakhs). To get a sense of why these numbers are important, here's a comparison - made on a rumoured budget of Rs 85 crore (including print and publicity costs), Besharam (2013), yet another Ranbir Kapoor flop, made Rs 21 crore (approximately) in its opening. While the verdict on Besharam was out even before the first show ended, it was more than clear that Ranbir Kapoor's star power was the sole reason for the bumper opening, with a little help from the director, Abhinav "Dabangg" Kashyap, of course.

So considering that Anurag is a bigger brand when it comes to brothers Kashyap, a major star like Ranbir Kapoor, in spite of his two back-to-back misfires [Besharam and Roy (2015)], hardly any negative pre-release press, and trailers that more than hooked the audiences, what explains the terrible opening?

After the post-release response to both Bombay Velvet and Anurag, many fans, serious followers as well as film commentators and some critics as well, have come out in support of the filmmaker. Some have gone to the extent of suggesting how the internet or some anti-Anurag Kashyap brigade is killing not just the film or the filmmaker, but also a certain kind of cinema. The negative chorus around the film might have been mob-like but it's largely the critics who called the much-awaited film things like "a beautifully decorated disaster" and "largely overwrought and inert", thereby perchance forcing the audience away. Irrespective, the critics who induced crumple zones and the ones batting for the film, seem to forget that the clamour that followed the release or the first show is still not responsible for the dreadful opening.

If Ranbir Kapoor's star appeal could ensure Rs 21 crore worth opening day collections for Besharam, Rs 27 crore opening weekend, and Rs 35 crore at the box-office, how come the same love wasn't showered upon Bombay Velvet? And this, when there was Anurag Kashyap along with Anushka Sharma, fresh from the success of NH10 (2015), for company as well. Did this audience lose faith in Ranbir's judgment post-Besharam and Roy? Or does his audience doesn't care for him experimenting with one of India's most intriguing filmmakers? But by the same token, shouldn't a certain segment of the audience, that would invariably line up to see an Anurag Kashyap film but doesn't consider Ranbir Kapoor worthy of watching, be curious to see him with their kind of auteur? Or did this audience consider Bombay Velvet a sell-out of some sort by the indie-spirited filmmaker and steered clear?

Ideally speaking, this kind combo should have attracted the best of both worlds, which is something that everyone was hoping for, but did it possibly end up alienating them further?

Such was the severity of the lack of the ticket buying audiences and the post-release uproar that the filmmaker himself responded on Facebook saying, "The Applause or Brickbats do not matter, what matters is who is standing in the arena. its us who go out there and risk it, its us who choose not to take the easy route, its us who stand tall when they let the lions loose on us, we are and will be the gladiators, lets just keep playing the sport."

Bombay Velvet might not be the end of the world - least of all for Anurag Kashyap or Ranbir Kapoor - but much like the unneeded harshness towards the filmmaker in reaction to the film, the puerility of the defence among the believers, too, is unwarranted. Bombay Velvet is mainstream Bollywood film featuring A-list stars made on a budget that is in excess of Rs 100 crore, executed languidly over years. Last checked, these were far from being indie or gladiatorial.

Maybe box office collections shouldn't be criteria to judge a work of art, but popular Hindi cinema is called "commercial cinema" and it would be hard to disregard the poor return on investment. In a few years, who knows whether the premature brilliance of Bombay Velvet might be discovered - as in the case of Heaven's Gate - but for now, it's a film that could not garner a response from the money-paying audience. Time and again, this audience has been called names by some of the very people who are finding its response, or dare I say its lack thereof, wanting. Even the critics or commentators, who lauded previous outings of the filmmaker, didn't find it (surprise, surprise) as soulful. Box office figures notwithstanding, Bombay Velvet won't end up being Anurag Kashyap's Heaven's Gates (1980), the epic western that couldn't recover a tenth of its $44 million budget and almost brought down the studio that financed it. It might not, as effectively, destroy the filmmaker's reputation as Michael Cinimo's Heaven's Gates did. However, the film will surely make it difficult for the mainstream and off-mainstream to meet on the latter's terms. The trail that Kashyap has blazed for other filmmakers, who somewhere aim to strike the same balance as him by writing screenplays or dialogues for films like Shakalaka Boom Boom (2007), Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (2007), Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2007) and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007), whilst making his own films and supporting those he believes in, such as Udaan, Shaitaan (2011), Shahid (2012), Aiyyaa (2012), Lunchbox (2013), and NH10 (2015).

However, most importantly, Kashyap's nurturing of new talent by producing a plethora of short films that were instrumental in discovering, among other filmmakers, Vasaan Bala and Neeraj Ghaywan, whose feature debuts were officially screened and featured at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Big stars will continue to experiment every now and then and indie-streaked filmmakers will manage to attract commercial stars, but not at a place called Bombay Velvet, no pun intended.