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.

That Girl in Yellow Boots will open the seventh annual South Asian International Film Festival

After creating waves on the festival circuit, Anurag Kashyap's thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots will open the seventh annual South Asian International Film Festival (SAIFF) in New York Oct 27.

Presented by HBO, the fest will mark the US premiere of the movie that has also been co-written by Kashyap and his lady love Kalki Koechlin, who plays the lead in the movie.

"Kashyap is at the forefront of independent South Asian cinema. Having his film premiere with SAIFF is an absolute honour. That Girl in Yellow Boots represents transition, and Kashyap pushes cinematic boundaries in order to make that happen," said Galen Roesenthal, SAIFF programme director, in a statement.

Set in Pune and Mumbai, That Girl in Yellow Boots is a moving story of the travails of a white-skinned foreign girl named Ruth, played by Kalki, who comes to India in search of her Bengali photographer father.

On her journey, she bribes bureaucrats to extend her tourist visa and learns parlour massage. In her quest, she also supports a drug-addicted beau. However, things change when she comes on the radar of the underworld.

Also starring in the movie are Naseeruddin Shah, Prashant Prakash, Gulshan Devaiya, Shivkumar Subramaniam, Divya Jagdale, Kumud Mishra and Kartik Krishnan in pivotal roles.

The movie has already won critical acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Venice Film Festival.

Other movies to be screened at the gala include Saurabh Shukla's Paapu Can't Dance Saala and I Am 24, I Am Kalam, Paan Singh Tomar and Aamir Bashir's directorial debut Harud to name a few. The festival concludes Nov 2.

That Girl in Yellow Boots big hit in Toronto

The red carpet was rolled out for Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and his cast for the premiere of his movie"That Girl In Yellow Boots at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). And the audience response was "incredible".

And if viewers' reaction to this provocative thriller here over the weekend is anything to go by, That Girl in Yellow Boots is the most well received Indian film at this year's festival.

"The audience reaction here and in Venice has been incredible. I never expected that the film will evoke such a strong response and reaction," Kashyap told IANS.

After Dev.D, That Girl in Yellow Boots seals Kashyap's reputation as one of the leaders of the independent film movement in India that is challenging conventional cinema by portraying social reality as it is.

As someone in the audience rightly said on Friday, "This is a film about the underbelly of the Indian reality as it is. Kashyap's characters portray things as they are."

Set in Pune and Mumbai, That Girl in Yellow Boots is the moving story of the travails of a white-skinned foreign girl named Ruth who comes to India in search of her Bengali father who was a photographer.

Playing the role of Ruth, Kashyap's partner Kalki Koechlin - born to French parents in India - has turned in yet another stellar performance after her role as Chandramukhi in Kashyap's Dev.D.

The winner of the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress in Dev.D and fluent in Hindi, Kalki - as Ruth - plunges into the maze of complex Indian milieu with the single-minded goal of finding her father.

She bribes bureaucrats to get her tourist visa extended, learns parlour massage to service men in the back alleys and supports a useless, drug-addicted boyfriend even as underworld sharks eye this fair-skinned girl. Sexually explicit dialogues flow freely in this film which has been rated 'adult' by the censors.

"Though some buyers abroad have suggested that I should have extended the boundaries of the film by showing sex scenes, I told them that's not my aim. My aim is not to show nudity, my aim is to convey the message and provoke people. Even in Dev.D all such (sex) scenes were shown off camera. My idea is to push my own boundaries," said Kashyap.

"The problem with Indians is that someone using the f-word in English is considered fine, sophisticated. But if the same person uses the f-word (as done in That Girl in Yellow Boots) in Hindi, it is considered foul. We have to mature as a society."

Taking potshots at Bollywood films, the ever restive director said, "Our problem is that we still make juvenile films...Our understanding of what is titillation and what is vulgar is very warped. Whatever makes the Indian male socially uncomfortable is termed vulgar. But if you have pelvic thrusts and (raunchy) music, that's okay with him as entertainment. A classical example is Kambakht Ishq."

Indian audiences need some shock therapy to get them out of their comfort zone, he said.

"Kabhi-kabhi audience ko jhatka lagna zaruri hai, tabhi bade honge. We need more films like That Girl in Yellow Boots to shock people...they will react angrily...there will arguments and counter-arguments and ultimately (get) some maturity."

Kashyap said he was inspired to make the film after reading about the story of a German girl who came to India over three years ago in search of her lost father.