Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap opened up about the recent inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, and said that it was an ‘advertisement’ for what’s to come and what’s happening in the country right now. The famously outspoken director also declared that the powers that be are exploiting the public’s anger, and that democracy is just a front for the fascism that has taken over.
At an event in Kolkata, Anurag was asked about the inauguration, which saw the country’s biggest names from the fields of sports, cinema, business and politics in attendance, and he said, “What happened on January 22 was an advertisement. That’s how I see it. Like the kind of advertisements that play between the news, this was a 24-hour ad. One of the key reasons why I am an atheist is because I was born in Varanasi. I was born in the city of religion, I’ve seen the business of religion very closely. You call it the Ram Mandir, but it was never a Ram Mandir. It was Ram Lalla’s temple, and the entire country can’t tell the difference.”
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He continued, “Someone one said, ‘Religion is the last resort of the scoundrel’. When you have nothing left to give, you turn towards religion. I’ve always called myself an atheist because I saw growing up, hopeless people would go to temples to ask for salvation like there’s some kind of button that they could push and erase all their problems… What is the reason why there are no movements? People are scared to be seen…”
Anurag said that it is important to change the manner in which ‘we fight back’. He said that information is being controlled by algorithms that feed people exactly what they want to hear, and that those in control of this are four steps ahead of everybody else. “Their technology is far more advanced, they are smart, they have understanding. We are still emotional, idealistic fools,” he said, as he suggested that the only way a ‘revolution’ can take off is if people destroy their mobile phones en masse. “Like the Swadeshi Movement, where we burnt imported clothes as a mark of protest, if we want to stand a chance now, we must destroy our phones and tablets. That’s the only way revolution can happen,” he said, adding, “Today, the fight is not for freedom. It’s against fascism posturing as democracy.”
Anurag said that people are wasting their time and energy by ‘tearing down posters’ that can simply be replaced, instead of focusing on the real issues. “And while your energy is going into tearing down posters, they have thousands of other methods to do what they want to. We’re wasting our time by starting intellectual arguments. I tell them, ‘You’re right, now let me do my work’. All our energy is going into these meaningless fights, and that’s how they’re keeping us engaged. We think we’re fighting, but we’re doing nothing. We’ve been tricked into their trap,” he concluded.
Once an outspoken critic of actions that he saw as undemocratic, Anurag has greatly reduced his social media presence. But he continues to voice his concerns in the real world.
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