Devashish Makhija says Yash Raj Films 'wiped out years' of his life: 'It’s been a very...'

Director Devashish Makhija, who assisted Anurag Kashyap on Black Friday and Shaad Ali on Bunty Aur Babli early in his career, initially chose to follow the YRF path. He was directing an animated film for Yash Raj Films, but the project was abruptly shelved after three years of production.

In a recent interview, the filmmaker opened up about the difficult experience. In an interview with Screen, Makhija discussed his early years in the film industry and how he ventured into direction. He said, "It’s been a very confusing journey. That’s why I’m 45, and I’m making my fifth film. If I had the two paths, choose one option, I’d be sitting on my 11th or 12th one. After Bunty Aur Babli, I was making an animation film for Yash Raj Films and Disney. When the first animated film they made, Roadside Romeo, tanked, they pulled the plug on my film. That was three years into production. I was to fly and do the final production at Pixar. I lost three years there."

Reflecting on how his decision to pursue mainstream films impacted him, Makhija shared, "I don’t know, accidentally or synchronistically, I went down the Yash Raj path. But because that film got shelved, I walked away from a three-film deal I had with them. Because nobody told me a film three years in production can get shelved. They just wiped out three years of my life."

Devashish Makhija made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed Oriya film Oonga in 2013. Since then, Devashish Makhija has directed Bhonsle and Joram, both of which starred Manoj Bajpayee. While both films received critical acclaim and won awards, they didn’t perform exceptionally well at the box office. His next directorial project is Gandhari, featuring Taapsee Pannu.