Anubhav Sinha to make an anthology on COVID-19 with these directors

Picture Courtesy: Official Instagram Account/Anubhav Sinha

Post the success of his critically-acclaimed film, Thappad released this year, Anubhav Sinha has recently announced his next project - an anthology film based on stories and experiences from the coronavirus pandemic to be produced under his production banner, Benaras Mediaworks.

Interestingly, the brilliant storyteller has joined hands with four of his filmmaker friends including Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Ketan Mehta and Subhash Kapoor to develop an anthology film focused on the subject that we are living through presently - the experiences of life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sinha shared the post on his Instagram account, have a look right here:

Talking about the idea of an anthology and the inspiration behind it, Anubhav Sinha informs, "It will be an interesting bunch of names, to tell stories of an interesting time in our lives. We will all interpret this period - starting February/March 2020 - and we will all tell a story from it."

Anubhav Sinha, who is spearheading the collective effort, points out, "This is such an interesting time, you know - even though I realise interesting may not be the best word. Sudhir bhai's driver had contracted COVID and he was unable to get a bed - and we were making all sorts of phone calls just to get him a hospital bed. That night I thought we should document this. And what better way to do it than different filmmakers looking at different things? Sudhir Bhai lost his father during the COVID-19 period. We lost Irrfan, and we couldn't even attend his funeral. I was thinking to go or not to go, but Tigmanshu fought with the police, he said he's his brother, he will go."

He adds, "All these things were disturbing, I thought we should record this. I then talked to my friends and they were game. And that's how the idea behind it began to formalise. This seemed like a good collaboration for all of us. There's one story by Subhash, one by Hansal, one by Sudhir bhai, one probably by Ketan. These are filmmakers that I believe that the so-called 'Bollywood' has largely ignored."

Shedding more light on each filmmaker's story, Anubhav explains, "Hansal's story is quite comic and quite tragic. Sudhir bhai's is quite political. Subhash's is also political, but in a different way. I am still struggling with my story - I want to tell an atmospheric story, which is about fear. I live on the 20th floor and I can see a very large expanse of Mumbai from my window. It has suddenly started looking like a deserted, dead city.

Produced by Anubhav Sinha under his banner Benaras Mediaworks, the untitled anthology is scheduled to release in 2021.

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