Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap announced on Tuesday that he is “moving out of Mumbai by next year”, asserting that the joy of filmmaking has been “sucked out” for him owing to talent management agencies. He felt that the agencies are setting wrong trends by pushing aspiring actors to become stars rather than focusing on becoming better actors.

“Right from the beginning, before the film starts, it becomes about how to sell it. So, the joy of filmmaking is sucked out. That’s why I want to move out of Mumbai next year,” he told The Hollywood Reporter India, adding, “I’m going to the South. I want to go where there is stimulation. Otherwise, I will die as an old man. I am so disappointed and disgusted by my own industry. I am disgusted by the mindset.”

Talking about the wrong precedent being set for budding actors, the 52-year-old said, “The first-generation actors and the really entitled ones are very painful to deal with. Nobody wants to act — they all want to be stars. The agency won’t make anybody a star, but the moment someone becomes a star, the agency makes money off them. The onus of finding talent is on you— you have to take a risk and firefight with 50 people. And when the film is made, the agency grabs them and turns them into a star... They won’t send them to workshops but to the gym — it’s all glam-glam because they have to be massive stars.”

Kashyap appeared in Malayalam film Rifle Club in December, opposite rapper Hanumankind.