Anubhav feel vindicated after his latest film gets rave reviews

Unending troll attack notwithstanding, director Anubhav Sinha is basking in the success of his latest movie Mulk.

Set in Varanasi and shot entirely in Lucknow, the film’s box office collection is souring, courtesy strong word of mouth by public and ‘full of praise’ reviews by critics.

“All the presumptions by trolls have turned out to be a ‘kapol kalpana’ (prejudice). We have made the socially relevant film with a good ‘niyat’ (intent) and now that it has released, the hate messages are drying down,” says the director, while talking to HT City.

Before the release, he was bombarded with hate messages by trolls, some even questioning his religion belief.

“Trolls came from various quarters but they are those people who work for some agenda. At times they disturbed me too and made me think that what have I done? But then, it depends on how vulnerable you are. You feel angry, disturbed, respond to few but then as an educated person I chose to forgive the ignorant ones,” he says.

The film has been shot in Lucknow but the plot is set in Varanasi. “That was a creative call to tell a small town story. The entire film has been shot in Lucknow and Malihabad except the initial montages of Varanasi. I could have shot it there but Lucknow is more shooting friendly,” says Anubhav.

“We have tried to avoid the iconic locations of the city so it looks like a small town. Now, people are talking about everything being so realistic and that happened because we shot in real locations from where the story belonged to.”

Anubhav says that he was inspired with some newspaper headlines, videos, real incidents that he has seen grown up —at his birth place Allahabad, Varanasi where he grew up and Aligarh where he took higher education.

Talking about shooting experience in Lucknow, he says, “First day, we thought that it would be impossible to shoot the film here with actors like Rishiji (Kapoor) and Tapsee (Pannu). We shot in most crowded place and narrow lanes of Old City but as it went on the whole neighborhood turned out to be very cooperative and friendly. I was surprised.”

Local production team (Aroon Singh) Dicky, Shahid along with the local administration played a very important role, he says while adding, UP’s film policy, ease of shoot and subsidy incentive has also motivated him to shoot here.

Having shot most of his love stories and action-packed films abroad, he shot his last two films in his home state.

“I don’t know why and how it happened but it has translated organically. Suddenly, after so many years and films, suddenly I have started falling in love with these locations. The stories that are coming in mind are of this region and all projects are happening here,” says the director of ‘Mulk’ and ‘Abhi To Party Shuru Hui Hai.’

And if it is just the beginning, Anubhav says more projects on UP are lined up. “Right now I am happy to be in the place where I belong to,” he says.

First Published: Aug 06, 2018 14:54 IST