Yellow Boots releasing worldwide: Anurag Kashyap

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap says that none of his films have ever reached international audiences beyond festivals as Indian distributors are sceptical of giving them a global release. His forthcoming "That Girl in Yellow Boots" is his first world wide release.


"That Girl in Yellow Boots", written and acted by Kashyap's wife actress Kalki Koechlin, is releasing Sep 2 even in non-NRI theaters in America.

"None of my films had been released internationally so far. Be it 'Black Friday', 'Dev D' all the films went to festivals, garnered acclaim and I ended up selling it to the satellite," Kashyap told IANS in an interview.

"'That Girl in Yellow Boots' is releasing in all Scandinavian countries, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and in America there would be 30 art house releases. It's apparently a small release but a big one for my film," Kashyap said.

Kashyap criticised Indian distributors, terming them inefficient and dishonest as they "repeatedly failed or deliberately didn't make international releases" of any of his films even after owning overseas rights, "just assuming there is no market for such non-conventional films".

"What has been my frustration ever since I started making film is that my films go to festivals across the world then when I approach distributors they ask for world rights as well. They take the world rights but don't release them outside saying there is no market for the film abroad. Internationally none of the distributors know how to distribute it or they hide the film from the non-NRI market.

"If a film has big stars like the Khans then a roadside tea stall owner would be able to distribute it across the globe," he said.

He said: "When there is a film which is highly acclaimed in the festival circuit why would that not be loved by other people. For example 'Udaan' garnered audience choice award of another country, why can't they distribute the film in theatres for the same audience of that country."

He is thankful to producer-distributor Viacom 18 for supporting his endeavour to explore the international market for his film.

"I thought that I would distribute the film worldwide personally. It took one year to find international distributors. Then we got Viacom 18, which is the first producer-distributor that said we would work in collaboration because it's the first time for both of us to explore the global market. Viacom 18 is collaborating with so many distributors world wide," said Kashyap.

"That Girl in Yellow Boots", is a look at the social criticism Kalki Koechlin suffered for being an actor with French connections coupled with other real time incidences that appeared in the newspapers, revealed Kashyap.

"When my relationship started with Kalki there used to be all kinds of stories. It was out of reluctance of accepting a white person. She had become a topic of coffee table conversation. A white girl looks good that's why she has got a chance in Hindi film, that's what was concluded.

"What people forget that, is that girl left England to live here as she was born in India and secondly she grew up on the diet of sambar and rice, and she still continues it as she can't take spicy food and her first language is Tamil. But all these things got discounted. We thought let's make a film on it mixing with stories of its kind that appeared in newspapers," said the 38-year-old filmmaker.

"The mixture of all those stories evolved into the story of 'Yellow Boots'. It's a thriller based on a girl's search for her father but set in an underworld that's mushrooming around us that we refuse to see or know," he added.

The film also features Naseeruddin Shah in a pivotal role.

Kashyap’s Girl in Yellow Boots an engrossing watch

Anurag Kashyap is one of India’s better movie-makers, whose controversial Black Friday, lay in the cans for a long time before it got the censor certificate for public screening. Based on a book by S. Hussain Zaidi, The True Story of the Bombay Blasts, Kashyap’s film was a ruthlessly bold look at the 1993 explosions that ripped what is called India’s Manhattan.

Kashyap had got into trouble even with his debut work, Paanch. It is yet to hit the screens.

He made several movies since then, including Gulaal, Dev D (a modern look at the Devdas story) and No Smoking. But they certainly did not attract the kind of attention that Black Friday did. In fact, both Gulaal and Dev D were screened at the Venice Film Festival last year.

This year, the Festival’s 67th edition -- now on here -- chose to show Kashyap’s latest work, That Girl in Yellow Boots. The story, written by Kashyap and his girlfriend, Kalki Koechlin (who also essays the protagonist in the movie), is all about a British girl from Brighton travelling to India to try and find her Indian father. The man had left her, her mother and step-sister 15 years earlier after a tragedy had stuck the family.
Koechlin playing Ruth is 20, and lands up in Mumbai to face the usual hassles that most foreigners in India go through. Often, looked upon as a woman of easy virtue, because of the colour of her skin, her youth and single status, Ruth in her desperation to survive only in order to search for the man she feels she loves gets involved with a drug addict, entangled with gangsters and pushed into working in a seedy massage parlourimpresses at VEn.

The narrative unfolds with surprises and shocks at every turn of frame, and The Girl in Yellow Boots has been scripted with a considerable degree of finesse that does not let the viewer make any easy guesswork.

Koechlin’s performance holds out promise, but unfortunately her European looks will greatly limit her roles. Prashant Prakash as Ruth’s boyfriend impresses, and so does Naseeruddin Shah, a “clean” customer who visits the parlour.

However, Kashyap’s creation may find it difficult to get past the multiplex audience, and its chances of making a mark outside metr.

By:Gautaman Bhaskaran