India’s DAR Motion Pictures is partnering with Phantom Films to produce Ugly, the next project from Anurag Kashyap, whose Gangs Of Wasseypur is screening in Directors Fortnight.

Kashyap is currently scripting the dark psychological thriller, which is scheduled to start shooting in the third quarter of this year, before he starts work on previously-announced period thriller Bombay Velvet.

“It’s a dark story but more mainstream than Anurag has been known to do before – perhaps as mainstream as Gangs Of Wasseypur,” said Arun Rangachari, chairman of DAR Motion Pictures’ parent company, DAR Capital Group.

Gangs Of Wasseypur is a two-part gangster epic backed by Indian studio Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Phantom Films is the production company that Kashyap founded last year with three other filmmakers – Vikramaditya Motwane, Madhu Mantena and Vikas Bahl. He also runs the Anurag Kashyap Films banner with Guneet Monga.

DAR Motion Pictures is also a co-producer on Amit Kumar’s upcoming thriller Monsoon Shootout, with the UK’s Trevor Ingman and other European partners; Ritesh Batra’s Lunchbox, which is currently being set up as an Indo-European co-production, and Vasan Bala’s Peddlers, which is screening here in Critics Week.

In addition to producing independent Indian films for a global audience, DAR is producing films in three other strands – big-ticket Bollywood films with directors such as Nikhil Advani; genre franchises, including a horror franchise in partnership with Anubhav Sinha, and youth-oriented films.

The company is also developing three projects across different budget ranges with Sudhir Mishra.   

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