When most children their age would play ghar-ghar, the Kashyap siblings played cinema-cinema. “Carrom board coins would become my audience, and board games would turn into a make-shift auditorium. Sometimes I would cut out film posters [to make it more realistic],” recalls Anurag Kashyap, the eldest of three siblings, over a phone call.

What about the plot? “A magazine called Sarita carried a review section called Chanchal Chaya. I would read the review, make up the story and they [Anubhuti and Abhinav] would think that I watched all the films,” he laughs. “He would create random stories… ones with shock value,” adds Anubhuti, the youngest of three siblings. “He would also draw and turn them into comics and novellas. These would be circulated among all the cousins during the summer vacations.” “One was titled Mr Huge Ho Gaye Fuse,” pipes in her eldest brother. “I had also created a character called Wonder Man. This was back in the 80s, much 
before Marvel.”