Anurag Kashyap Opens Up About Fallout With Mukesh Chhabra: 'We Did Stop Speaking But...' | Exclusive

A while back, casting director Mukesh Chhabra made headlines after his statement on Anurag Kashyap went viral during an interview. Talking about how they had a fallout but have now made up, he had stated, “He (Anurag Kashyap) thinks that I never take his side when it comes to casting decisions, and I always endorse the right person for the job. He is kaan ka kacha (gullible), he always thinks that I cast my favourites, and never support the actors that he likes.” He also said that such episodes led them to fight with one another and added that the director ‘has a habit of not responding when he doesn’t have a rational argument to make’.

However, in a recent chat with News18 Showsha, Kashyap revealed that his claims are untrue and that their decision to not be on talking terms stemmed from something else. “We did stop speaking but that was due to some other differences. What Mukesh stated was never the case. My original casting director was always Gautam Kishanchandani. He quit casting after Dev D and That Girl In Yellow Boots. And Mukesh, at that time, wasn’t a casting director,” said Kashyap, emphasising that their ties haven’t been severed.

The Kennedy and Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat director slams those pointing out that the duo never worked together again and further explaining the same, he remarked, “People feel that we don’t work together anymore. Gangs Of Wasseypur was an important film because it made people realise that casting directors are a very integral part of the film industry. That film marked Mukesh’s beginning. People think we don’t work together but that’s because I always work with Gautam.”

Kashyap also attributes the fact that they haven’t collaborated in the recent past to Chhabra’s chock-o-block schedule and stressed on how he only prefers to work with people who can only focus on his films. “People keep asking Gautam why he doesn’t work with others. I only work with people who can stay invested with my films. I generally work with not-very-busy people. Mukesh is very busy. He’s casting for almost every film being made. There’s no other reason why we aren’t working together,” he pointed out.

In the same interview referred above, Chhabra also credited his career as a casting director to Kashyap. Reacting to the same, the latter told us, “I made him a casting director during Gangs Of Wasseypur. Since that film had a lot of actors, we had to audition many of them. Right next to our office was a room where we began auditioning a lot of people.”

He further recalled, “After that, Gautam came back. He resumed his career with Vishal (Bhardwaj’s) ji’s film Patakhaa starring Sanya Malhotra and Radhika Madan, and after that we began working again. Gautam was one of the first casting directors. He did the casting for Black Friday and Gulaal too.”