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Anurag Kashyap on ‘Sacred Games’: “We had no idea of the impact we were going to create”

When Anurag Kashyap introduced the first season of ‘Sacred Games’ on Netflix, little did he know that the series would create such an impact.

Reported by Times Now News, the director spoke about the second series and the expectations that the audience may have for ‘Sacred Games 2’, which is due to release on 15th August. “I feel the pressure is more this time. When we started the first season, we had no idea of the impact we were going to create. So, we could do just what we wanted to do,” further adding, “Now it (the show) has become a giant. We feel like, one shouldn’t do something so big – build a fan-following that hold so much expectation that in the second season, it becomes difficult to handle! Just joking! Of course, we love the fact that we made the show exactly as we wanted. So, I am under pressure but I am happy!”

‘Sacred Games’ is based on the characters of Inspector Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and gangster Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), Kashyap split the directorship between himself and Neeraj Ghaywan. For the ‘Dev D’ (2009) director, he wishes he could have spent time directing both characters, but this would have required more time. “I would have loved to do both the story tracks – of Sartaj Singh as well as Gaitonde. However, understanding Sartaj’s world is in itself a task. I would have needed two months in advance to get there. Honestly, time is a factor.”

Between shooting for season one and two, the ‘Akira’ (2016) director has also managed to fit in making two films ‘Mukkabaaz'(2017) and ‘Manmarziyaan’ (2018), talking about how he juggled both he said, “I would shoot Manmarziyaan in Amritsar by the day, and edit Sacred Games by night. Before that, even as we shot the first season of Sacred Games, I was putting together the post-production of Mukkabaaz. So basically, a lot of madness happened over the past two years. I lost some weight as well!”

Kashyap explained due to the web series format,  this enabled each crew member to carry out their role to deliver ‘Sacred Games’, “While I shot my portions of the story, Neeraj shot his. We would submit the filmed material to Vikram (Vikramaditya Motwane) because he is the showrunner. Then Vikaram would sit down along with writer Varun Grover and editor Aarti Bajaj to create the final product. We all played an important role in the process because we looked at the material objectively. That made it sharper, smarter, and more specific.”

For season two, Kashyap and his team have been extensively shooting in various countries such as South Africa, Ukraine, Croatia and Kenya, as well as certain parts of Mumbai. Recollecting how he acquired a luxury bungalow for ‘Sacred Games 2’, Kashyap shares how it was all down to Siddiqui’s character, who has a huge following in Kenya. “Gaitonde has a huge fan following abroad. We were shooting in a plush bungalow in Kenya, and we actually managed to get the bungalow for the shoot because the owner came to know that Gaitonde was coming to shoot Sacred Games! Nawaz bhai is really famous there!”

Alongside Ali Khan and Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Kubbra Sait and Pankaj Tripathi will be back for season two with some new faces such as Kalki Koechlin, Luke Kenny, Ranvir Shorey and Shobita Dhulipala.