Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap warned on October 20, 2026, that Hindi cinema has fallen under the absolute stranglehold of patriotic and devotional genres, leaving independent scripts and diverse storytelling virtually excluded from production studios across Mumbai.

The startling remarks come amidst an unprecedented box-office pattern where three of Bollywood’s four highest-grossing titles of the year—Dhurandhar 2, Hanuman Ansh, and Border 2—belong strictly to religious or ultra-patriotic formats. According to Kashyap, the financial euphoria surrounding titles like Dhurandhar and Hanuman Ansh has triggered a blind, risk-averse gold rush among corporate studios, fundamentally choking the commercial oxygen necessary for original, slice-of-life projects.

The Total Collapse of Studio Diversity

Lamenting what he characterizes as an alarming creative paralysis, Kashyap revealed startling discussions with active film executives who openly admitted they are no longer permitted to greenlight stories outside these narrow thematic guardrails. What might appear from the outside as a thriving commercial boom is, behind closed doors, a suffocating regime of formulaic conformity that denies theatrical space to nuanced, unconventional cinema.

"You can make either a patriotic or a devotional film. Otherwise, nothing else is getting greenlit. That is a fact and a tragedy."

The director, who is stepping in as an executive producer to help release independent films, described his present industry function not as a typical financier, but as an essential "enabler" tasked with rescuing stranded productions. He emphasized that the fundamental process of mounting a production in Mumbai has reached an unprecedented level of difficulty, regardless of whether a script targets young audiences or mature viewers. In an ecosystem consumed by guaranteed nationalistic tropes, independent creators are finding their morale dismantled before a single frame is shot.

The Telugu Cinema Parallel

Highlighting creative nuances across regional borders, Kashyap drew attention to the Telugu film sphere, pointing specifically to Don’t Trouble The Trouble, a major production backed by SS Rajamouli and starring Fahadh Faasil. Kashyap noted that regional industries often demonstrate a far more versatile approach to labeling and marketing cinema, refusing to reduce projects featuring youthful protagonists to simple, disposable categories, in stark contrast to Hindi cinema’s rigid, trend-chasing ecosystem.

Betting on Independent Storytelling

Despite the prevailing industry climate, Kashyap is pushing forward with the release of Little Thomas, an independently crafted project written and directed by Kaushal Oza. The feature stars Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Dugal alongside child actor Hridansh Parekh in the central titular role, with an executive backing group that includes Anushka Shah, Charu Oza, Rajnikant Oza, Akshay Thakker, Kabir Ahuja, and Ranjan Singh.

Kashyap argues that the overwhelming uniformity saturating multiplexes might actually create a desperate appetite among moviegoers for heartfelt, grounded narratives. Pointing to global film festivals where coming-of-age projects and mature limited series like Adolescence capture serious adult audiences, Kashyap insists that cinematic value must not be measured purely by patriotic fervor.

Scheduled for theatrical release on October 23, Little Thomas represents a critical test case for whether alternative cinema can still survive in an era dominated by relentless ideological blockbusters.