Anurag Kashyap admits Shah Rukh Khan’s Pasaan will ‘break the curse’ of Bollywood

In 2023, the Bollywood film industry made a spectacular recovery at the box office, breaking away from the consecutive failures of the previous year. The turning point came with Shah Rukh Khan’s 2023 hit action films ‘Pattern’ and ‘Jawan’. Both of his films released this year broke box office records and garnered tremendous praise from fans and critics alike. Reflecting on this, filmmaker and actor Anurag Kashyap praised King Khan’s performance in Pattern while looking back on 2023. He acknowledged SRK as the driving force behind the industry’s new success and credited him with “breaking the curse” of Bollywood.

In a conversation with Pinkvilla, when asked what changes 2023 brings for Bollywood, Anurag Kashyap replied, I think jo sabu log bollywood pe se curse is oos gaya hai (curse removed from bollywood) but distributors are happy, studios are happy and everyone is happy too. This is very good news because I am happy,” he added. A positive indicator of the success of his future projects.

“The biggest moment of the year was that Pattern broke the curse. There was a curse in Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan came and said, ‘Hata ao isko (just take it away).’ That was the defining moment (of this year),” the filmmaker emphasized.

Speaking about SRK’s film Pathaan and its reputation, Anurag Kashyap told Pinkvilla, “It hasn’t faded.”

Pathaan is an action thriller directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra. This is his fourth film in his YRF spy universe and stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, with Dimple Kapadia and Ashutosh Rana in important roles. The story revolves around Pasaan, a talented agent who used to work for RAW but chose a different path for some reason. This conspiracy is set up when India revokes Article 370 for Jammu and Kashmir. The cast includes Salman Khan and Virav Patel. The movie was released on January 25, 2023.

In addition to Pathaan, the same year saw successful films like Jawan, Gadar 2, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, 12th Fail and the recently released Animal. Revenue is expected to be approximately 50 billion rupees.

On the work front, Anurag Kashyap is currently busy promoting his neo-noir thriller film Kennedy starring Rahul Bhatt and Sunny Leone. The film received a standing ovation at its 2023 Cannes screening.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan is gearing up for the release of his much-awaited film Dhanki, a comedy-drama directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Apart from SRK, the film also stars Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Boman Irani in special appearances. The story revolves around donkey flying, which is an illegal method of entering the country. It is produced under the banners of Red Chillies Entertainment and Jio Studios.