Neeraj, then assisting anurag kashyap on gangs of wassepur, Gave me his number and asked me to call. I still remember that conversation. He told me he had quit a well-paying job, was working 15-hour days as an Assistant Director, barely earning anything. “I joined this industry a bit too late. You’re in your early 20s, so it’s the best time to come here,” he said.

Four Years Later, Masaan Premiered at cannes. Neeraj cried during the standing ovation. And I remembered that voice on the phone: Uncertain, worn out, yet steel chasing cinema as if all the answers to the life of the life images, flaiking in the dark, hyptising in the starring in

I messaged him a few days ago to ask if he had any specific memory from those days. He said: “There was a time during those early days in banaras when I had cramps even my soles. Wasn.

To understand how masaan was made 10 years ago, and how someone like Neeraj Could be so afflicted with the desire to make films that he lost up before it, one must consider the kinder. Surrounded him. At the time, Indian Cinema was going through a quiet rebellion.

Like films Udaan (2010), Court (2014), Fandry (2013), The lunchbox (2013), Ankhon dekhi (2013), Miss lovely (2012) and and Suremani keeda (2013) Emerged in that era. The idea of the independent film had begun to feel less imparted. Its charm was so persuasive that even ekta kapoor, the architect of Indian television’s saas-bahu new wave, financed Love sex aur dhokha (2010).

Metaphorically speaking, it was as if the big mall of Bollywood had started allowing a few local vendors to set up carts inside. MasaanDuring that time, stood out by walking a line most films stumble on. It has the quiet ambition to merge world cinema sensibility with the storytelling pace of accessible commercial cinema. At the time, that was unusual. It was like in its portrayal of case, the way some films flaunt their virtue. Nor was it so subtle, like much of arthouse cinema, that Idea melted into metaphor and escaped notice altogether.

Masaan Treated case as a sadness that sits at the centre of love stories in India. Unlike the films and television shows that camera and kickstarted the “small town” wave, Masaan Didn ‘Romanticise or exoticise the hinterland. There were no peppy background tracks layered with spanish guitar to sell the charm of small towns or village. The town in Masaan Breathed, buried, and its people waited for something better, with no promise it would come.

In that sense, Masaan Offered a template for what mumbai cinema could have become: rooted in Indian reality, shaped with artistic clarity, yet still emotionally accessible to the public. The Recent Film All we imagine as light by Payal Kapadia Too Too Too Walk That Delicate Line Between Arthouse and Commercial Cinema, Between Politics and Love, Managing a Theatrical release and Being Embraced by Many. Like Masaanit proves that this bridge can be built, just not very often.

A Decade Later, The Space for Such Films Feels Eve More Fragile. The identity of the indie film itself semes to be fading, not with a final collap, but with a quiet vanishing. What Could have been a strong fory into stories with emotional depth and artistic clarity never quite passed the baton. Instead, the torch dimmed somewhere in the distance, and nobody seamed to care.

I spoke to varun grover, Masaan‘s written, too, for the occupation, who explained the cultural shift over the last decade: “Today, if I take Masaan Script to anyone, I double it would be made. No studio or production house would step up like they did in 2015. In fact, people encouraged anti-algorithm films. Now, ott platforms are even tougher. Executives only care about what the data says. YouTube might be the last standing platform for original voices, but even that is shrinking rapidly.

Out of that, I don’t think there’s much left. It’s a pessimistic thing to say, but even in 2015, people are already passimistic. They just know how much more despair was coming. Maybe in 2035, I’m’ll look back and say 2025 wasn ‘so bad. By then, Maybe creators wont exist. Robots will create, watch, and distribute content. We’ll just sit on the sidelines, doing our podcast, talking to each other and that’s it. “

The writer is an author, podcaster and multimedia artist