Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who gave us spectacular films like 'Gangs of Wasseypur’ and DevD, is celebrating his 50th birthday on September 10. Besides being a director, Anurag is also a writer, editor and producer. He even tried acting. He began his career as a TV serial writer, and he got his first break as a co-writer in Ram Gopal Varma's film 'Satya.'
On his 50th birthday, here’s a look at some lesser-known facts about Anurag Kashyap.
'Black Friday' (2007) is considered Anurag's full-length feature directorial debut, but it is not. His original debut was the film 'Paanch', which remained unreleased as Anurag refused to make cuts as suggested by the Censor Board. After Paanch, Anurag made Black Friday which was also banned later because of the controversial subject.
Anurag’s biggest failure was the film Bombay Velvet which starred Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. The film was made on the budget of Rs 125 crore and it faced a loss of over Rs 100 crore.
Anurag started as a theatre artiste in the entertainment industry where he learnt skills of acting in Delhi. He has appeared in movies like Black Friday, No Smoking, Luck by Chance, Dev D, Gulaal, Shagird, Aiyyaa, Bhoothnath Returns and many more.
Anurag came from Banaras to Mumbai to pursue a career in the Hindi film industry. He had limited resources and almost no money. He got his first chance to write the screenplay for Ram Gopal Verma’s Satya which turned out to be a big hit. He then got the privilege to write many films screenplays and dialogues.
Anurag prefers shooting in real locations and uses guerrilla-filmmaking techniques with hidden cameras. This was most prominently seen in the film ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’.
British director Danny Boyle cited 'Black Friday' and 'Satya' as the inspirations for his Academy Award-winning film 'Slumdog Millionaire.’ (Image: News18)
