Award-winning filmmaker Anurag Kashyap dedicates a song to Bihar in its centenary year, at Cinepolis on Thursday. The song, Jiya ho Bihar ke lala, jiya ho hazaar saal, is a part of his next film Gangs of Wasseypur that is scheduled to hit the screens on June 22 this year.

The Dev.D maker believes Bihar has changed a lot under chief minister Nitish Kumar’s regime. “It has changed drastically. The state has changed for the better and that is why I have dedicated the song to Bihar. Because of the improved Bihar, we did not mind shooting a few scenes in Patna. A scene has been shot in front of Beur Central Jail. When the film releases, I would also invite the Bihar chief minister to watch it,” Kashyap said.

Asked about the reason behind dedicating the song to Bihar, Anurag said: “Both Bihar and Bollywood have completed the centenary year. On the occasion, I wanted to dedicate something to Bihar from Bollywood and nothing could be better than Jiya ho. The song talks about Bihar and wishes it a long life.”

To add local flavour to the number, Bhojpuri singer Manoj Tiwari has lent his voice for the title track, Kashyap added.

The film is about the coal mafia at Wasseypur in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. The cast includes Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui of Kahaani fame and Richa Chadda of Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye. Sharing more about Gangs of Wasseypur, Kashyap said: “The f ive-hour-20-minute film will be released in two parts and will have the same actors.”

Anurag Kashyap has directed films like Black Friday, No Smoking, Gulaal and That Girl in Yellow Boots.

Text by Amit Bhelari, picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh