Regarding his falling out with the actor during Dev D, Anurag Kashyap said, “Abhay Deol can call me toxic, but if I speak the truth, he won’t be able to face it.” He talked about the controversy that involved Pankaj Jha and him as well.
Actor Anurag Kashyap has been actively promoting his project. He recently released the movie Bad Cop. The actor-director talked candidly about his miscommunications with Pankaj Jha and Abhay Deol in a recent interview. Although he described his encounter with Pankaj Jha as a total misunderstanding, he had a completely different take on Abhay Deol, his Dev D actor. Kashyap declared, “He (Abhay) won’t have a face left to show if I speak the truth.”
During a recent interview, Janice Sequeira questioned the actor and filmmaker about his poor relationship maintenance skills. Kashyap answered, “I am not bad at maintaining relationships,” in response to this. I haven’t seen Abhay since the filming of Dev D. He hasn’t spoken to me since, and he didn’t even come for promotions. Okay, that’s his side of the story if he wants to label me toxic. The truth cannot be said because if I do, he will be unable to reveal his face. There is too much truth there, too much that Abhay will be afraid to discuss. Furthermore, I won’t discuss it because it will make him appear s***.
He also cleared up the confusion surrounding Pankaj Tripathi’s unannounced replacement of Pankaj Jha in Gangs of Wasseypur. “With Pankaj Jha, I dunno, it just seems like a misunderstanding… it’s been so long,” he remarked. All I can recall is that Pankaj Jha, who had been painting instead of acting, had joined the Osho ashram. He vanished from the part that I wanted him for. He had a lot going on. In addition, I had a very limited budget and Pankaj Tripathi was cast at the last minute.
I have recently heard that Pankaj Jha is upset, but why has it been 14 years? No, he ought to have been upset at the time. Pankaj Jha had, in my imagination, joined Osho, painting in the same way that he had adopted Sanyas. I had no idea he was still performing. He started performing again with Panchayat. I’m not sure what transpired with him in between. He didn’t give me a call. Why he is so upset is beyond me.
I can’t always make people happy, said Kashyap, who is frequently described by those he has worked with as a “toxic” and “problematic” person. I don’t work with people that I perceive to be problematic, and the people I have never worked with are the ones that believe I am difficult. They classify me as a difficult person because of this.
In an earlier interview with Digital Commentary, Pankaj Jha expressed his displeasure at being replaced on Gangs of Wasseypur without warning, and his general criticism of the industry’s “spinelessness” in voicing opinions was misrepresented in headlines disparaging the director. Similarly, Abhay Deol has referred to the director as being incredibly “toxic” in a number of interviews. In the 2009 movie Dev D, they collaborated.
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has directed movies like Gulal, Black Friday, Gangs of Wasserypur, and others, is currently concentrating on his acting career. He most recently starred in the Vijay Sethupathi in Maharaja, and he will soon appear in Bad Cop alongside Gulshan Devaiah. In the movie AK vs. AK, he faced off against Anil Kapoor.