“Nishaanchi, for me, is like going back to the cinema I grew up watching,” shares Anurag Kashyap ahead of the film’s release on September 19

Stories have always been Anurag Kashyap’s first love, whether through the books he devoured or the films he discovered. Over the years, he has donned multiple hats — director, writer, producer, actor — but above all, he remains a lifelong cinephile, carrying with him the lens of a curious boy who once saw cinema as magic projected onto white walls. As a child in small-town India, films reached him not through glossy theatres but through makeshift screenings. Sometimes his father would power up a projector, and sometimes films would arrive years late to Chalchitra talkies. Those early encounters stayed with him, shaping the filmmaker he would become. With his upcoming film Nishaanchi, Kashyap taps into that same wide-eyed wonder, returning to the raw magic of the cinema he grew up watching.

Reflecting on how those early encounters with stories shaped his artistry, Anurag Kashyap shares, “I would read a lot of Noir, from Dashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler, and reading that stuff opened the door for me to cinema, making me curious to watch films from across the world. Nishaanchi, for me, is like going back to the cinema I grew up watching. Back then, we had no theatres in small towns, so my father would set up a projector to project films onto the big white walls. Since cinemas were in the cities, our entertainment came from government-scheme theatres like Chalchitra Talkies. Films would reach us years after their city release. Sholay was released in 1975, but I saw it only in 1980 or ’81. Sometimes movies were projected on white walls or red sheets in tennis courts, and kids like me would sneak behind the screen to watch when our parents forbade it.”

 Directed by Anurag Kashyap and produced by Ajay Rai and Ranjan Singh under Jar Pictures, in association with Flip Films, Nishaanchi is written by Prasoon Mishra, Ranjan Chandel, and Kashyap himself. The film promises a gripping cinematic experience that explores the tangled relationship of two brothers who walk starkly different paths, revealing how their choices shape their destinies. Featuring debutant Aaishvary Thackeray in a fiery double role, alongside Vedika Pinto, Monika Panwar, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, and Kumud Mishra, Nishaanchi will hit theatres across the country on September 19.