Lessons from Anurag Kashyap’s Journey in Bollywood

Thanks to Vijesh, I saw this talk where Anurag Kashyap talks about his journey in Bollywood. There are tons of lessons in there. I think you must check it out. This blog post is a list of lessons that I am taking away from it.

Here’s a list.

• Once you know what you want to do in life (that’s where I think half the battle is), identify places where people who can help you find work on what you want to work on hang out. Spend time there. Offer them your services for free. Till a point, you become so important that you start getting the work you wanted. Aka, hustle. He says that he worked at Prithvi Cafe because that is where all the film-wallahs would hang out. And once he was there, he started to work for free, as a writer. Because he could write fast and did not ask for credit or money, he started getting work. And with time, he became important.
• Always be available. Continuation from the first point. 
• No one owes you anything. If you want it, you better go work for it. Just because you want it, the world will NOT serve it to you on a platter. He gives an example of how people goto him and tell him that they want to make movies and he asks them, “who’s stopping you?”
• He says that each choice has a consequence. And you have to know that you will have to live with and deal with those consequences. 
• Every time he would see resentment from people around him, he would move out from that clique. 
• Do things. And not just crib. Do not blame others. Do not abuse others. Don’t just cry that things are wrong. 
• Jugaad. How do you understand people and appeal to their desires deep down and get things done. He gives an example of how he got a digital camera for free by offering a role to the person who controlled the camera. 
• When you believe in something, you HAVE to stand up for it and fight for it. You HAVE to take responsibilities. This is my biggest takeaway. 
• Persistence is probably one of the most undervalued traits! Of course, you have to know what you really really stand for in life. And once you know what you believe in, you HAVE to persist with things!
• When you fail, you don’t crib or moan. You go back to the drawing board and restart. As he said, the world does not owe you anything! 

PS: This was first written for subscribers of my letters, SoGv2. More about em is here.