Anurag Kashyap Profile, Bio, Height, Affair, Family, Wiki & Net Worth

Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian film director, writer, editor, producer and actor known for his works in the Hindi cinema. Anurag Kashyap is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film, the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and letters) in 2013. After writing a television serial, Kashyap got his major break as a co-writer in Ram Gopal Varma’s crime drama Satya (1998) and made his directorial debut with Paanch, which never had a theatrical release due to censorship issues. He then went on to direct Black Friday (2007), a film based on the namesake book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings.

Anurag Kashyap’s prominence increased with the two-part crime drama, Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). Kashyap subsequently co-produced the critically acclaimed drama The Lunchbox, and the biographical drama Shahid (both 2013), the former earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language nomination. His next films were the anthology Bombay Talkies (2013), and the drama Ugly (2014). In 2016, Kashyap directed Raman Raghav 2.0, a film based on the serial killer Raman Raghav. Anurag Kashyap’s next film was the sports drama Mukkabaaz, which was released in 2018. The same year, he co-directed India’s first Netflix Original series, the crime thriller Sacred Games, based on Vikram Chandra’s novel of the same name and the romantic drama Manmarziyaan.

Anurag Kashyap Wiki/Bio

Anurag Kashyap Family

Kashyap was born on 10 September 1972 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. His father Sri Prakash Singh is a retired Chief Engineer of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited and was posted in Obra Thermal Power Station in Sonbhadra district near Varanasi. He did his early schooling in Green School Dehradun and, age eight onwards, at the Scindia School in Gwalior. Some of the locations used in Gangs of Wasseypur are also influenced by his own old house where he himself lived with his parents, sister Anubhuti Kashyap and brother, Abhinav Kashyap. Abhinav is also a filmmaker, while Anubhuti has been his assistant in most of his films.

Anurag Kashyap Net Worth

Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the field of Bollywood, Anurag Kashyap is one of the wealthiest filmmakers in India. Anurag Kashyap has a number of big-grossing and critically acclaimed names of movies to his name as a director. He is known for his control over the films’ artistic and dramatic aspects along with the production design. He is also well known to start new venture movies with fresh faces. He has the quality of producing sensations over creating the overall vision through which the film eventually becomes realized.

Anurag Kashyap Career

After the de Sica experience, Kashyap arrived in Mumbai in 1993 with INR 5,000 in his pocket. Soon the money ran out, and he spent months on the streets, staying in lofts, “sleeping on beaches,” “under a water tank and in the St Xavier’s [college] boys hostel. He then managed to find work at Prithvi Theatre, but his first play remained incomplete because the director died.

Anurag Kashyap As Writer and director

The 1990s

In 1995, an acquaintance introduced Kashyap to Shivam Nair. The day they met, Kashyap watched Taxi Driver (1976) at Nair’s place, and the film inspired him to “write something”. The team of Sriram Raghavan, Sridhar Raghavan, and Shiv Subramaniam were working on two projects, one of which was a short TV series, Auto Narayan, based on the life of serial killer Auto Shankar; the second one was a film scripted by Kashyap. Auto Narayan got delayed because the script written by Subramaniam was not “working”.

Kashyap rewrote the script and got credit for the same, but it was scrapped. In 1997, he wrote the screenplay of Hansal Mehta’s first film, Jayate which failed to find a theatrical release; and episodes of the TV series Kabhie Kabhie (1997).

Due to his desire to become a scientist, Kashyap went to Delhi for his higher studies and enrolled himself into a zoology course at the Hans Raj College (University of Delhi); he graduated in 1993. He then eventually joined a street theatre group, Jana Natya Manch; and did many street plays. The same year, his couple of friends “urged to catch a de Sica retrospective” at the International Film Festival of India. In ten days, he saw 55 films at the festival, and Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves was the film that influenced him the most.

The 2000s

While working with Nair, Kashyap came across files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders that took place in Pune in 1976, which became the inspiration for his directorial debut Paanch. A crime thriller about a group of five friends of a rock band who turn into criminals. The film faced trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification because the board felt that it dealt unapologetically with sex, drugs and celebrated violence. It was cleared by the Board in 2001 but remains unreleased due to some problems faced by the producer. In these years, he also wrote dialogues for many films including Paisa Vasool (2004), Mani Ratnam’s Yuva (2004), the Canadian film Water (2005), Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2005) and Mixed Doubles (2006).

After a failed attempt to make Allwyn Kalicharan in 2003, Kashyap started working on Black Friday (2007), a film based on the namesake book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. The Bombay high court put a stay on the release of the film until the judgment in the bomb blasts case was delivered. It was decided after a petition filed by a group of 1993 bomb blasts accused, challenging the release of the film based on their case. The film got censorship clearance in 2007 and was released after two years of meeting universal acclaim. Nikhat Kazmi gave the film a three-star out of five ratings and mentioned it.

“It was indeed a difficult film to make, yet the director has managed to grapple with all the loose threads and put them together in a composite whole. So much so, the film moves like a taut thriller, without ideology coloring the sepia frames.”

The same year, Kashyap adapted Stephen King’s short story “Quitters, Inc.” into No Smoking. A surrealistic thriller about a chain-smoker who gets trapped in the maze of a person who guarantees will make him quit smoking. The film starring John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Ranvir Shorey and Paresh Rawal in the leads with music by Vishal Bhardwaj, premiered at the Rome Film Festival.

No Smoking received an overwhelmingly negative reception and failed at the box-office. CNN-IBN’s Rajeev Masand called it a “colossal disappointment”.His final release of the year was Return of Hanuman, an animation film about adventures of the Hindu god Hanuman.

In 2009, Kashyap had two releases. Dev.D, a contemporary take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Devdas. It was the twelfth film adaptation of the Bengali novel. Starring Abhay Deol who actually pitched the original idea of the film to Kashyap, with Mahie Gill and newcomer Kalki Koechlin portraying the characters of “Paro” and Chandramukhi respectively. The film met with generally positive reviews and strong box office results. Gulaal, a political drama, was his final release of that year.

Kashyap started working on the film in 2005 and had finished 70–80 percent of the film in 2006 when its producer fell ill. Later on, Zee Motion Pictures took over the project and was finally finished in 2008 and released on 13 March 2009. Anupama Chopra gave the film three stars and referred to Kashyap as “the Anti-Yash Chopra”. Despite positive reviews, the film underperformed at the box office.

The 2010s

Mumbai Cutting (2010), an anthology film, was his next directorial venture. It consisted of eleven short films made by eleven directors. He directed one of the short films. It premiered at the 2008 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

In 2011, Kashyap directed That Girl in Yellow Boots, a thriller starring Kalki Koechlin who also co-wrote the film with him. The film was screened at many festivals including the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, 67th Venice International Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and the London Indian Film Festival. Shot in thirteen days, the film was released in September 2011.

Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the character-driven film and the portrayal of its lead alongside the city compared to most Hindi films: ” a film like this provides a radically different view of India than you can find in the pleasures and excesses of Bollywood”.

In 2012, Kashyap came up with his ambitious directorial venture Gangs of Wasseypur, which screened at the 2012 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, London Indian Film Festival, Toronto film festival and the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. The film with an ensemble cast was a two-part crime saga centered on the coal mafia of Dhanbad with the story spanning from the early 1940s to 2009.

The first part was released on 22 June, and the second on 8 August 2012, both receiving appreciation from Indian and international critics alike. The combined budget of the two films allowed it to be a box-office success.

In 2013, Kashyap directed That Day After Everyday, a 20-minute short film that was released on YouTube; starring Radhika Apte, Geetanjali Thapa, and Sandhya Mridul. It showed the story of three working women facing troubles every day, both inside and outside their houses and how they overcome them. Dealing with issues like eve-teasing and public molestation, the video got four lakh hits in two days.

Speaking about the purpose of the project, Kashyap showed his intention to make people feel angry without offering a solution. The same year he teamed up with Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Karan Johar to direct “Murabba”, one of the four segments of anthology film Bombay Talkies. It was made to celebrate the 100 years of Indian cinema and was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film did not perform well at the box office but was well-received by critics.

His next film was Ugly (2014), a thriller about the kidnapping of a struggling actor’s daughter, and the events followed by it. It was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, receiving a standing ovation. The film’s theatrical release was halted for over a year regarding censorship issues over the depiction of smoking in it. Though it was released on 26 December 2014 to generally positive reviews.

Kashyap’s next release was Bombay Velvet (2015), a period film set in Bombay in the 1960s, based on Princeton University Historian Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables. It stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Karan Johar. The film was co-edited by the Academy Award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who is known for her collaboration with Martin Scorsese.

Released on 15 May 2015, the film opened to mixed to negative reception; while critics appreciated its retro-look, performances, styling, and music, they criticized its faltered storytelling. It also emerged as a box-office failure. Bombay Velvet was Kashyap’s dream project and its failure was a huge disappointment to him. In an interview with critic Rajeev Masand, Kashyap stated that at one point he wanted to leave India because he felt that people here did not understand his films but then realized that he did not manage the budget of the film.

In 2016, Kashyap co-wrote and directed Raman Raghav 2.0, a thriller based on the notorious serial killer Raman Raghav. It starred Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title character along with Vicky Kaushal. The film premiered at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival and the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, in the Director’s Fortnight section to a positive response.

In August 2018, it was announced that Kashyap will direct a film titled Talagh with Angira Dhar which will be in German, Dari, and Pashto languages.

Anurag Kashyap As Producer

• Anurag Kashyap found his production company Anurag Kashyap Films in 2009, which is managed by Guneet Monga. The companies’ first film was the critical hit Udaan (2010), which was screened in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Since then, he has produced a number of projects including Shaitan (2011), Chittagong (2012), Aiyyaa (2012), Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012) and Shorts (2013). Anurag Kashyap has also co-produced a number of films that have gone on to film festivals but are yet to release theatrically, including Michael, Peddlers and Monsoon Shootout.

Anurag Kashyap As Actor

Kashyap has made cameo appearances in his films and those of others, including Black Friday, No Smoking, Tera Kya Hoga Johnny (2008), Luck by Chance (2009), Dev.D, Gulaal, Soundtrack (2011), Trishna (2011), Bhoothnath Returns (2014), Happy New Year (2014) and I Am (2010), playing a child abuser. The same year, he played a police officer in the short film Encounter (2010), co-starring Nimrat Kaur. In 2011, he playing the full-fledged role of the antagonist Bunty Bhaiya in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s crime thriller Shagird (2011).

In 2016, Kashyap starred in AR Murugadoss’s Akira, starring Sonakshi Sinha; where he played the role of a corrupt police officer. In 2017, he acted in the short film titled Chhuri, alongside Tisca Chopra and Surveen Chawla. He also played the role of the antagonist in the Tamil-language thriller Imaikkaa Nodigal (2018) directed by R. Ajay Gnanamuthu.

Anurag Kashyap Filmography

Anurag Awards and honors

On 20 May 2013, Kashyap was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, when India was the guest country of the festival to commemorate 100 years of Indian cinema.

Anurag Kashyap has also served as one of the jury members at many film festivals including the 2009 Venice Film Festival, 2013 Sundance Film Festival, 13th Marrakech Film Festival, and the 20th Busan International Film Festival. In 2016, Kashyap was awarded Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh for his contribution to the field of cinema.

In 1999, Kashyap shared the Screen Award for Best Screenplay, along with Saurabh Shukla for Satya. The next year, his short film Last Train to Mahakali won the Special Jury Award at the same awards. His feature film debut Black Friday won the Grand Jury Prize at the 3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard (Best Film) Award at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival.

In 2011, Kashyap shared the Best Story and Best Screenplay Award at the 56th Filmfare Awards with Vikramaditya Motwane for Udaan. The next year he shared the Filmfare Award for Best Dialogue with Zeishan Quadri, Sachin Ladia and Akhilesh Jaiswal for Gangs of Wasseypur at the 58th Filmfare Awards; the film also won the Critics Award Best Movie at the same award show. At the 60th Filmfare Awards, Kashyap won the Filmfare Award for Best Editing with Abhijit Kokate for Queen.

Some Known Facts About Anurag

• Does Anurag Kashyap smoke?: Yes
• Does Anurag Kashyap drink alcohol?: Yes
• In his school days, Anurag Kashyap had great affections with the films but after schools, Anurag Kashyap changed his mind and wanted to become a scientist and thus took admission at Hans Raj College, the University of Delhi in a Zoology course and during his college days Anurag Kashyap again diverted towards films.
• After completing graduation in 1993, Anurag Kashyap joined a street theater group “Jana Natya Manch”.
• Kashyap attended the International Film Festival of India and saw 55 films in just 10 days and the film which inspired him the most was Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves.
• After being inspired by De Sica’s filmmaking, Anurag Kashyap left home with Rs. 5000 in the pocket and arrived in Mumbai in 1993 to pursue his dream.
• During his initial days in Mumbai, Anurag Kashyap spent months on the street and benches.
• Anurag Kashyap’s first job in Mumbai was at Prithvi Theatre, however, his first play was incomplete due to the director’s death.
• The turning point of his life was when Manoj Bajpayee introduced him to Ram Gopal Varma to write a film that eventually turned to be the movie Satya which later proved to be a huge success at the Box-office.
• Anurag Kashyap directorial debut film “Paanch” hasn’t been released yet.
• Anurag Kashyap founded his own film production company in 2009, “Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd. (AKFPL).”
• Anurag Kashyap is known for his unique film-making style in which he pursues extensive research on each character and extensively uses light and color effects.
• Anurag Kashyap’s film, Gangs of Wasseypur was well received by the Indian audience. The film was screened at the 2012 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, London Indian Film Festival, and Toronto Film Festival.
• Anurag Kashyap has also acted in a few films like Shagird, Black Friday, Happy New Year, No Smoking, Bhoothnath Returns, Akira, etc.
• Anurag Kashyap is known for the guerrilla filmmaking technique in which the camera is hidden and actors are given chance to improvise.
• British director, Danny Boyle was inspired by Kashyap’s works and copied the film-making style of Kashyap in some of the scenes of his Oscar-awarded movie “Slumdog Millionaire”.
• A Canadian critic, Cameron Bailey has called him “one of the most knowledgeable filmmakers.”
• Anurag Kashyap is a member of the board of the NGO, Aangan, which helps protect vulnerable children around India.

FAQ’s

Is Anurag Kashyap Best Director?

Anurag Kashyap is an Indian filmmaker and actor, known for his work in Hindi cinema. Return of Hanuman (2007), an animated film, was Kashyap’s next directorial venture. In 2009, he directed Dev.D, a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Bengali novel Devdas, along with the political drama Gulaal.

Who is Anurag Kashyap daughter?

Aaliya Kashyap

What did Anurag Kashyap say?

Congratulations everyone on this new India and hope you all thrive.” In a second post, Kashyap said that his decision to quit Twitter was due to the fact that he won’t be allowed to speak his mind without fear. “Wish you all the happiness and success. This would be my last tweet as I leave Twitter.

Where is Anurag Kashyap from?

Gorakhpur

Which caste is Kashyap?

Kashyap (caste) The Kashyap is a caste in India. They are sometimes called the Koshyal or Kanshilya.