Devashish Makhija on YRF shelving his animated film: They just wiped out three years of my life

Devashish Makhija

Filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s journey in Indian cinema has been anything but smooth. With only four films to his name since entering the industry in 2005, Makhija’s path has been marked by both triumphs and setbacks. One of the most significant setbacks came when Yash Raj Films (YRF) shelved a major animated film he had been working on for three years.

Reflecting on his experience, Makhija admitted in an interview with Screen that the journey has been “very confusing” and pointed out that if he had chosen a different path, he could have been making his 11th or 12th film by now.

After assisting Anurag Kashyap in Black Friday and Shaad Ali in Bunty Aur Babli, Makhija began working on an animated project for YRF and Disney. However, after the failure of YRF's first animated venture, Roadside Romeo, the production house decided to pull the plug on Makhija's film. Makhija recalled, “I was making an animation film for Yash Raj Films and Disney. When the first animation film they made, Roadside Romeo, tanked, they pulled the plug on my film.”

The director explained that he had already invested three years into the project, and was on the brink of final production at Pixar when he received the devastating news. “I lost three years there,” he said, emphasizing how much time and effort had been wiped out. The shelved film represented not just a creative setback but a personal one as well. Makhija had signed a three-film deal with YRF, but after the project was canceler, he walked away from it. “I don’t know, accidentally or synchronistically, I went down the Yash Raj path. But because that film got shelved, I walked away from a three-film deal I had with them. Because nobody told me a film three years in production could get shelved. They just wiped out three years of my life.”

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Despite this major setback, Makhija’s career did not end there. He went on to make critically acclaimed films like Bhonsle and Joram, both starring Manoj Bajpayee, as well as the celebrated Odia film Oonga. Currently, he is working on the highly anticipated Taapsee Pannu-led Netflix film Gandhari. Through it all, Makhija’s perseverance remains unwavering, and he continues to push forward, drawing from his experiences in an industry that can sometimes be unpredictable and unforgiving.