The Pulp Fiction director told Anurag Kashyap that he was inspired by an Indian movie with animated violence scenes
So far we’ve always thought of Indian cinema as being a derivative of its western counterparts.
So to hear that one of American cinema’s most influential directors,
Quentin Tarantino, director of movies like Pulp Fiction and Inglorious
Basterds, has admitted in a conversation with one of our own directors,
Anurag Kashyap, that a whole sequence in one of his films is inspired by
an Indian film, came as a huge and a welcome surprise.
Apparently Tarantino admitted in a private conversation with Anurag that
the celebrated animation-action sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from
2001 Hindi-Tamil film, Kamal Haasan starrer, Abhay.
Quentin Tarantino
When contacted, Kashyap says, “Yes, Sight and Sound critic Naman
Ramchandran first told me this. So when I met Quentin in Venice I asked
him whether the Manga sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from an Indian
film and he excitedly remarked, ‘Yes, I saw this Indian serial-killer
film which showed violence as animated.’”
Kashyap explains,
“There is only one Indian serial-killer film which was made before Kill
Bill where violence was animated, and that was Abhay.” Kamal Haasan, who
starred in Abhay, has his own take on the compliment. “When I did the
animation action sequence 12 years ago it was seen as self-indulgent and
odd by a lot of people. Now that it has been endorsed by a filmmaker of
such brilliance, critics will be kinder to some of the things I attempt
in my films.”
