Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino inspired by Abhay

The Pulp Fiction director told Anurag Kashyap that he was inspired by an Indian movie with animated violence scenes 

So far we’ve always thought of Indian cinema as being a derivative of its western counterparts. 

So to hear that one of American cinema’s most influential directors, Quentin Tarantino, director of movies like Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds, has admitted in a conversation with one of our own directors, Anurag Kashyap, that a whole sequence in one of his films is inspired by an Indian film, came as a huge and a welcome surprise. 
Apparently Tarantino admitted in a private conversation with Anurag that the celebrated animation-action sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from 2001 Hindi-Tamil film, Kamal Haasan starrer, Abhay. 

When contacted, Kashyap says, “Yes, Sight and Sound critic Naman Ramchandran first told me this. So when I met Quentin in Venice I asked him whether the Manga sequence in Kill Bill was inspired from an Indian film and he excitedly remarked, ‘Yes, I saw this Indian serial-killer film which showed violence as animated.’”

Kashyap explains, “There is only one Indian serial-killer film which was made before Kill Bill where violence was animated, and that was Abhay.” Kamal Haasan, who starred in Abhay, has his own take on the compliment. 

“When I did the animation action sequence 12 years ago it was seen as self-indulgent and odd by a lot of people. Now that it has been endorsed by a filmmaker of such brilliance, critics will be kinder to some of the things I attempt in my films.”

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