By Subhash K Jha

So far we've always thought of Indian cinema as being unabashedly derivative of its western counterparts.

Therefore to get to know that one of American cinema's most influential directors Quentin Tarantino has actually admitted in a conversation with our own avant-garde auteur director Anurag Kashyap that a whole sequence in one of his film is inspired by an Indian film, came as a huge surprise.

Apparently Tarantino admitted in a private conversation with Anurag Kashyap that the celebrated animation-action sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from 2001 Hindi-Tamil film Kamal Haasan starrer Abhay.

When contacted Anurag Kashyap said, "Yes, this was first told to me by the Sight and Sound critic Naman Ramchandran. I didn't believe it.

When I met Quentin at Venice I asked him, ‘Is it true that the ‘Manga' sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from an Indian film?' he excitedly remarked, ‘Yes, I saw this Indian serial-killer film which showed violence as animated. '

He moved on to talk about other things. If you know how fast he talks and how much he talks, you'd know why that's all I could get out of him. "

Opines Anurag, "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 an animation action sequence in Abhay 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 redoubtable brilliance maybe critics would be kinder to some of the things I attempt in my films. "