It’s not every day that a filmmaker says a project broke him. But Anurag Kashyap, a director who has often worked on the edges of Indian cinema and brought its underbelly to global light, says Maximum City did exactly that.
And no, it’s not because the story was too ambitious or the script didn’t land.
It’s because Netflix, a platform that prides itself on original storytelling, ghosted him.
Let that sink in.
A man handwrites 900 pages of a script over nearly two years. He adapts a book he’s lived with since 2004. He puts his body, his health, and everything else on the line for a story. And then the same OTT platform that promised him a canvas… vanishes without a trace. No call. No mail. No explanation.
This isn’t just professional mismanagement. It’s creative betrayal.
Kashyap’s pain isn’t only about a failed project. It’s about being reduced to a checkbox in someone’s corporate panic, the kind that quietly bins 18 months of labour without blinking. In a world where art meets data every day, the data side seems to have gotten far too loud. And if Maximum City can be dumped without a word, one has to ask: what is Netflix India even doing?
The filmmaker’s claims sting deeper when you look at the irony, that the platform often celebrates shows it never had the courage to greenlight in the first place. Trial by Fire, Kohhra, Class, all decent hits, none promoted the way they deserved.
The shows Netflix ends up backing are either legacy stars or algorithms screaming trend lines. And when they do produce something in-house, it often feels like the creative spark has been sucked dry by a room full of nervous execs clinging to their jobs.
Anurag’s frustration reflects a larger creative fatigue. Netflix India’s approach has often felt disconnected from the Indian pulse. Where Kashyap thrives in chaos and subculture, the platform is still trying to fit everything into a polished, global-ready mould. And in doing so, it’s missing the very stories that could have set it apart.
Yes, Kashyap is vocal. Sometimes volatile. But that’s what raw storytelling looks like. That’s what built the legacy of shows and films that now get patted on the back at film festivals. To discard that voice without even the courtesy of a rejection, that’s not just lazy. It’s cowardly.
What Maximum City could’ve become, we may never know. But what Netflix lost? That’s loud and clear.