Anurag Kashyap left flabbergasted as Sona Mohapatra unleashes tirade against male gaze in his films, accuses him of not promoting her song | Bollywood News
Director Anurag Kashyap and singer Sona Mohapatra, who’ve collaborated on a song for his film Raman Raghav 2.0 in the past, had a tense exchange at an event recently. Attending the Synapse Conclave on artificial intelligence, Sona took several digs at Anurag, accusing him of not promoting her song “Qatl-e-Aam,” and critising his movies. She said that she appreciates Anurag’s writing, but can’t abide his filmmaking, which, she said, is marked a ‘male gaze’. Also present at the panel were filmmakers Nikkhil Advani and Vikramaditya Motwane, who had brief exchanges with the singer as well. At one point, she reminded Nikkhil of an argument they had, that she claimed to have won. “You win them all,” he said in response.
“I want to say something to Anurag,” she began, speaking over everyone else. She continued, “I have observed your journey, and been a huge fan of you as a writer. Not too fond of your films, and the gali-galoch and the male gaze… But I’m a fan, nevertheless. You’re an art. You’re one of the only arts I know who’s a filmmaker. Otherwise, most of them are put-togetherers.” Sona pointed out that she is the sole woman on the panel, and demanded more time to speak. She proceeded to plug her show, which she has created with the help of artificial intelligence.
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Sona said that with the help of AI, she can create opportunities for herself, because the gatekeepers of the film industry don’t seem to be too interested in employing her. She poked fun at singers Arijit Singh and Diljit Dosanjh, and claimed to be making huge money through her show, which has been made possible with AI. Anurag had already voiced his skepticism about AI, noting that it will ultimately become a profit-generating machine for large corporations to exploit humanity. “In our country, unless you are a man singing about mourning and heartbreak, you will not get to sing in mainstream Bollywood,” she said.
Asked to sing a few lines, Sona turned to the audience, and complained about corporates sponsoring tours of only ‘Somjit, Arijit, Diljit’. She said that she will only sing if anyone in the audience can name a song of hers that isn’t “Ambersariya” or “Naina” or “Bahara.” Anurag mentioned “Qatl-e-Aam,” which prompted her to turn towards him and say, “When ‘Qatl-e-Aam’ came out, you promoted every other song on that soundtrack of yours and said, ‘She’s not worth promoting, she’ll promote herself’.” Anurag put his head in his hands, and laughed. In a recent interview, Anurag said that he isn’t interested in the ‘toxic Hindi film industry’ anymore, and has moved to Kerala.
