Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap said that his adaptation of writer Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City has been written, but OTT giant Netflix is no longer associated with the project. He said in an interview that after the Tandav controversy, streamers in India are playing it safe and have changed a lot of their policies.
While speaking to The Lallantop, Anurag Kashyap was asked about an update on Maximum City, a non-fiction novel that chronicles life in Mumbai through four diverse perspectives. In 2019, it was reported that Anurag had been tapped by Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment to direct and co-produce the adaptation of the book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Asked if he had an update about the project, Anurag said in Hindi, “It’s written, but we’re figuring out the next steps. Netflix was supposed to do it earlier, but they aren’t doing it any more. The project had been green-lit, but a lot has changed since then on streaming. Lots of projects have stalled, like Paatal Lok season two…”
All of this, the filmmaker said, happened after Tandav was released in early 2021, and attracted controversy over one scene. Multiple police complaints were filed against creator Ali Abbas Zafar and stars of the show, leading Prime Video to make changes to the scene in question.
Anurag made his streaming debut with Netflix’s Sacred Games, which he co-directed alongside Vikramaditya Motwane and Neeraj Ghaywan. He also directed the film Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai for Netflix. In a recent appearance on Mashable India’s The Bombay Journey YouTube series, the filmmaker revealed that Sacred Games was supposed to get a third season, but Netflix didn’t move ahead with it. He said in Hindi, “A season three was supposed to come out, but they shut it down, Netflix would know why.”
