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Hansal Mehta reveals how Anurag Kashyap wrote his first film in 48 hours for Rs 15,000, but the movie never released.
Anurag Kashyap and Hansal Mehta.
Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has revealed a fascinating story from the early days of his career and it includes a generous film producer and a struggling Anurag Kashyap writing his first screenplay for just Rs 15,000.
Hansal shared that RV Pandit, the producer of Maachis (1996), played a pivotal role in encouraging him to make films when few believed in him. “RV Pandit ji was the one who supported people who were written off. I had edited all the trailers and promos of Maachis,” he told Pinkvilla. Despite distributor advice to downplay Gulzar’s name on the posters, RV Pandit did the exact opposite. “Some distributor told him Gulzar saab ka naam poster pe chota rakhna kyuki koi khareedega nahi unki film. Don’t play it up. Toh RV Pandit ji ne Gulzar saab ka naam Maachis se bada kar diya tha poster mein. He got very angry and said I will make Gulzar the biggest thing on the poster.”
One day, RV Pandit turned to Hansal and asked, “You want to make movies? How much do you want to make a movie?” Hansal thought it was too good to be true. “Mujhe laga kaun de raha hai… Rs 50,000 ke liye struggle hai… lakh kaun dega.” But Pandit instructed his accountant Hemant to give him Rs 25 lakh, and another Rs 25 lakh if required—“but not a single penny more.”
Confused but excited, Hansal began shaping his film. He was spending time with actor Manoj Bajpayee at Mahesh Bhatt’s Andheri flat when inspiration struck in an unexpected way. “We were discussing ideas. Baat karte karte wo so gaya. Darwaza knock kiya kisi ne. Ek aadmi aaya… maine bola Manoj bhaiya so rahe hai… wo bolta main aapse milna chahta tha… Highway dekhi thi, pagal ho gaya, bada fan hu… Aapko dhund raha hu kabse.”
That man was none other than Anurag Kashyap, who had just started out. “Usne bola main actor hu aur likhta bhi hu. Toh maine usko bola main ek kahani bolta hu likhoge kya? Usne bola sir main likh lunga, mujhe Rs 15,000 chahiye, mera three months ka rent hai. Usne 48 hours mein mujhe screenplay de diya kyuki usko paise chahiye the.”
Hansal paid him Rs 75,000. The 350-page script became the film Jayate. “It was technically Anurag’s first film,” Hansal said. The cast included Shakti Kapoor in a serious role, Shilpa Shirodkar in her final film, and each actor was paid Rs 50,000.
But Jayate was never released. “It got selected for Indian Panorama at IFFI, but it didn’t find distributors.”