Renowned filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has stirred a major debate in the Indian film industry with his bold statement, claiming that a "huge scam" is unfolding in the name of Pan-India films.

In a recent interview, the actor-director—known for his work in Hindi cinema and his role in Tamil films like Imaikkaa Nodigal and Maharaja—criticized the current trend of branding even small-budget films as Pan-India projects simply because they are dubbed in multiple languages.

Kashyap claimed that producers are pouring massive budgets into films with the assumption that multi-language releases automatically make a movie “Pan-India.”

“A film being made on a big budget doesn’t make it Pan-India. Only one percent of such films succeed. The rest vanish without a trace,” he said.

He further alleged that this obsession has created corruption and wasteful spending, with filmmakers blindly chasing trends:

“If Baahubali works, they copy Baahubali. If KGF works, they try to make another KGF. We’ve stopped focusing on stories and started chasing formulas,” he added.

Kashyap emphasized that whether a film has Pan-India appeal should be determined by its content, not its budget or the languages it’s released in.

“Let the story decide if a film is Pan-India—not us,” he remarked.

As expected, his statement has sparked mixed reactions online. While some support his critique of the industry's herd mentality, others see it as an unnecessary provocation. Regardless, Kashyap’s remarks have once again ignited a vital conversation around creativity, economics, and originality in Indian cinema.