Anurag Kashyap and Kalki Koechlin are gearing up for their first international release of their movie ‘That Girl in Yellow Boots’. The movie is even set to release in the non-NRI theaters.
The movie acted in and written by Kalki Koechlin and directed by Anurag Kashyap will release on September 12th this year.
"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 added.
Kashyap criticized and blamed the Indian distributors of not being efficient and honest and said “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.
"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 added.
He said he is thankful to Viacom 18 for supporting his endeavor.
"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.
The movie is based on the criticism that Kalki has to endure for having French connections when she first started her Bollywood career. It also covers many other criticisms that the actress had to face for being a white girl.
"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 leftEnglandto live here as she was born inIndiaand 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.