Not a very happy Diwali for this super-gifted filmmaker who friends claim, has gone underground.
To that Anurag laughs heartily, "Yes, I've been hearing rumours about myself. That I've migrated to Kolkata. That'm making Bengali films. Ha ha! Just because I did a celebrity chat show on Bangla TV. I suppose that's where the rumours started. I did that chat show because it was earlier hosted by Saurav Ganguly."
Far from moving away from Hindi cinema after the debacle of Kites Anurag is all set to direct three Hindi feature films in 2011.
Elaborates Anurag, "I was supposed to do two films Silence with Ranbir and Priyanka Chopra, and the film on Kishore Kumarin 2011. Silence would've happened in 2010. It got pushed ahead because Imtiaz Ali's film Rock Star with Ranbir got delayed. Now between Silence and my Kishore Kumar bio-pic I am directing a third film. The details are now being worked out."
As for rumours of Anurag "returning" to television the director of the neo-classics Gangster and Life In A Metro says, "I started on television. I never left the medium.We're now producing a serial loosely based Life In A Metro. We've tentatively titled it Dil Khudgarz Hai."
Anurag hoped to name the serial Metro. But the title belongs to UTV.
Anurag says it's impossible to make a sequel to Life In Metro."When we made the film the concept and the treatment were novel. But now so many films have been made on the same them. Besides I've many new subjects for films. Why return to what I've already done."
Silence with Ranbir and Priyanka is to start shooting in January. The second leading lady is still to be finalized.
Anurag hopes to get the actress in place this month.