Anurag Kashyap (director)
Encyclopedia
Anurag Singh Kashyap is an Indian film director
and screenwriter
. As a director, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film
about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking
(2007), Dev D
(2009) and Gulaal
(2009). As a screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for the Filmfare Award-winning Satya
(1998) and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian film Water (2005).
In 1999, Kashyap won the Best Screenplay
award for Satya at the Star Screen Awards
. 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 (2005), and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard (Best Film) at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival
(2004). Recently, he announced his association with Tumbhi where he and his team will make 6 short films for Tumbhi and start his blog with them as well - Anurag's official blog(2010).
He was listed on the The DNA power list: Top 50 influentials, a list of 50 most influential Indians in 2011.
, Uttar Pradesh
, where his father worked for the state electricity board. He grew up in several cities, including Varanasi
, Saharanpur
, and Obra
. He did his early schooling in Dehradun
, and age eight onwards, at the Scindia School
in Gwalior.
He was fascinated with films right from childhood, and even at age five, would watch Hindi films like Kora Kagaz
and Aandhi
at a nearby film club and open-air theater. This came to an end once he began his schooling.
Due to Kashyap's desire to become a scientist, he went to Delhi for his higher studies and enrolled himself into a zoology course at the Hansraj College
(University of Delhi
); he graduated in 1993. During his college days, he started watching films again, and also got involved with drugs and alcohol. He was confused and depressed, and had joined a street theater group, Jana Natya Manch; he ended up doing a lot of street plays. The same year, a couple of friends introduced him to world cinema; they "urged [him] to catch a de Sica retrospective" at the International Film Festival of India
. In ten days, he ended up seeing a total of 55 films at the festival, and de Sica's Bicycle Thieves
was the film that influenced him the most; watching it "was an epiphany."
.
5,000-6,000 in his pocket. The money ran out after he stayed for a couple of days in a "good hotel." He spent the next eight months on the streets, staying in lofts, "sleeping on beaches," "under a water tank and in the St Xavier's [college] boys hostel." He managed to find work at Prithvi Theatre
, but his first play remained incomplete because the director died. He then joined Makrand Deshpande
's troupe - Samrangan - but left because he "could not face life. [He] wanted to act but [he] couldn't act with all that frustration."
Kashyap then wrote an "eight-page drama"—Main (I)—which did well at college drama festivals, and people advised him to pursue a career in writing. Kashyap's play was appreciated by directors like Govind Nihalani
and Saeed Mirza. Nihalani was working on a television series based on classic works, and he gave Kashyap a couple of books—a play by Henrik Ibsen
, and Franz Kafka
's The Trial
—so that he could write scripts based on them. Kashyap read The Trial and told Nihalani that the book could only be made into an animation film, not a regular one. Nihalani asked him to reconsider. But the books had "confused [Kashyap] so much that [he] started thinking that [he] didn't know anything!" Kashyap started avoiding Nihalani; he went into "hibernation for a year and a half, and kept reading."
In 1995, an acquaintance introduced Kashyap to Shivam Nair
, director of the 2006 film Ahista Ahista. The day they met, Kashyap watched Martin Scorsese
's Taxi Driver
at Nair's place—on a "bad vcr" and using a "mutilated tape"; the film fascinated him. "I want to write something," Kashyap told Nair, and spent the next few days sitting in a corner as people like Sriram Raghavan
, Sridhar Raghavan and Shiv Subramaniam discussed things. Sridhar introduced him to the world of books—authors like James M. Cain
. The team was working on two projects, one of which was a docu-drama, 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 penned by Subramaniam was not "working." Kashyap rewrote the script, and got credit for the same, and the second film was scrapped. But Kashyap had now proved himself, and so got access to a VCR and television set. He starting bringing in video tapes and spent many days watching films. Kashyap got his first major break when actor Manoj Bajpai
, who was working on Daud
showed Auto Narayan to producer-director Ramgopal Varma. Varma liked Kashyap's work and hired him to write the script for Satya.
In September 1993, while Kashyap stayed at the St. Xavier's Boys Hostel, he used to hang out with the members of a band—Greek (later Pralay). He took copious notes on how they lead their lives—forty pages of a small notebook, and began writing the script—"in bits and pieces"—for a film that he called Mirage but which would later become Paanch. Kashyap had seen ex-VJ Luke Kenny
in a Vikram Kapadia play, and approached him with an incomplete script, but nothing came out of it. Later on, while working with Nair, he came across files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders
that took place in Pune
in 1976.
He had also seen a film, Fun
, about two mentally unstable girls murdering an elderly woman. And Paanch was ready to be made into a film. Kashyap says—
Satya was a commercial and critical success, and Kashyap collaborated with Varma on a few more films writing the screenplay and dialogues for Kaun? (1999) and the dialogues for Shool (1999). He also wrote the dialogues for Mani Ratnam's Yuva
(2004). Kashyap made his directorial debut with Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead in 2000. However, the film ran into trouble with the Indian censor board
and hasn't been released to date. In 2007, he adapted Stephen King
's 1978 short story "Quitters, Inc.
" as No Smoking, which despite being received well by critics, didn't do well at the box-office. This was followed by Return of Hanuman
(previously Hanuman Returns) a Hindi animation film about adventures of the Hindu god Hanuman.
Then, in 2009, came Dev.D. Written and directed by him, the film is a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas
, previously adapted for the screen by such revered filmmakers as P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy
, and more recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali
. Dev.D was embraced by the media, critics and public alike, and is considered to be amongst path-breaking films in Hindi for the way it presented itself.
In March 2009, while announcing steering away from screenwriting, after his current assignments to concentrate on direction, Kashyap also announced two new film projects. Bombay Velvet, a thriller based on real incidents in 1960s, based on a script by Princeton University
Historian Gyan Prakash
, will be produced by Danny Boyle
starring Aamir Khan
. Doga, the second film, will be based on the Raj Comics super hero
.
In 2010 he played a child abuser in Onir
's I Am, revealing that the role was meaningful to him because he had been sexually abused as a child. His next film as a director is That Girl in Yellow Boots
.
at Kalki's maternal home in Ooty. They first met during the making of Dev D. Both Anurag and Kalki collaborated on making of the movie, Shaitan
.
His younger brother Abhinav Kashyap
is also a screenwriter/ director and made his directorial debut in 2010 with the blockbuster Dabangg
starring Salman Khan. Abhinav also co-wrote the script with Anurag for the Sanjay Gupta
directed film Jung starring Sanjay Dutt
and Jackie Shroff
.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. As a director, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
about the 1993 Bombay bombings, followed by No Smoking
No Smoking (2007 film)
No Smoking's soundtrack was released in September 2007. Lyrics by Gulzar.- External links :* * * * * *...
(2007), Dev D
Dev D
Dev.D is a 2009 Indian romance film released on 6 February 2009. Written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, the film is a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas., previously adapted for the screen by P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy and more recently by Sanjay Leela...
(2009) and Gulaal
Gulaal
Gulaal is a 2009 Indian film directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. The film explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived...
(2009). As a screenwriter, he wrote the scripts for the Filmfare Award-winning Satya
Satya (film)
Satya is a 1998 Hindi crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma with a screenplay by Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla. It stars J. D. Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpai, Urmila Matondkar and Shefali Shah...
(1998) and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian film Water (2005).
In 1999, Kashyap won the Best Screenplay
Star Screen Award for Best Screenplay
The winners of the Star Screen Awards for Best Screenplay are listed below:...
award for Satya at the Star Screen Awards
Star Screen Awards
The Star Screen Awards is an annual awards ceremony in India honoring professional excellence in film. The nomination and award selection is done by a panel of distinguished professional from the industry itself.- History :...
. The next year, his short film Last Train to Mahakali
Last Train to Mahakali
Last Train to Mahakali is short film written and directed by Indian film director-screenwriter Anurag Kashyap. It was made for the Star Plus television series Star Bestsellers and was first telecast in 1999. The film won the Special Jury Award at the 8th Annual Star Screen Awards...
won the Special Jury Award
Star Screen Award Special Jury Award
The ' is a special award conducted by the Star Screen Awards to recognise a great performance by an actor in the previous year. The winners are listed below:-...
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 (2005), and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard (Best Film) at the 57th Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
(2004). Recently, he announced his association with Tumbhi where he and his team will make 6 short films for Tumbhi and start his blog with them as well - Anurag's official blog(2010).
He was listed on the The DNA power list: Top 50 influentials, a list of 50 most influential Indians in 2011.
Early life
Anurag Kashyap was born in GorakhpurGorakhpur
Gorakhpur is a city in the eastern part of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, near the border with Nepal. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur District and Gorakhpur Division. Gorakhpur is one of the proposed capitals of the Purvanchal state which is yet to be formed...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, where his father worked for the state electricity board. He grew up in several cities, including Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
, Saharanpur
Saharanpur
Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal Corporation in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. It is the administrative headquarters of Saharanpur District as well as Saharanpur Division...
, and Obra
Obra, India
Obra is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Sonbhadra district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Obra is located 120 km from Varanasi at the Bank of Sone River with population of 52,398 As per 2001 India Census. The city which is located next to Obra is Chopan and Robertsganj which is around 12 km...
. He did his early schooling in Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
, and age eight onwards, at the Scindia School
Scindia School
The Scindia School is Indian boarding school for boys, established in 1897, and situated in a historic fortress known as Gwalior Fort, in the city of Gwalior, India...
in Gwalior.
He was fascinated with films right from childhood, and even at age five, would watch Hindi films like Kora Kagaz
Kora Kagaz
Kora Kagaz is a 1974 Hindi film produced by Sanath Kothari and directed by Anil Ganguly. The film stars Vijay Anand, Jaya Bhaduri, A.K. Hangal, Achala Sachdev and Deven Verma. The films music is by Kalyanji Anandji...
and Aandhi
Aandhi
Aandhi is a 1975 Indian movie supposedly based on then-prime minister Indira Gandhi's life, but in reality, it was inspired by Tarkeshwari Sinha, apart from Indira Gandhi. It was directed by Gulzar...
at a nearby film club and open-air theater. This came to an end once he began his schooling.
Due to Kashyap's desire to become a scientist, he went to Delhi for his higher studies and enrolled himself into a zoology course at the Hansraj College
Hansraj College
Hans Raj College is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Delhi. This co- educational Institute offers education in all the three streams- arts, science and commerce, and is located on the Mahatma Hans Raj College Road, Kamla Nagar, in the Delhi University’s North campus, and...
(University of Delhi
University of Delhi
The University of Delhi is a central university situated in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the Chancellor of the university...
); he graduated in 1993. During his college days, he started watching films again, and also got involved with drugs and alcohol. He was confused and depressed, and had joined a street theater group, Jana Natya Manch; he ended up doing a lot of street plays. The same year, a couple of friends introduced him to world cinema; they "urged [him] to catch a de Sica retrospective" at the International Film Festival of India
International Film Festival of India
The International Film Festival of India , founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually in the beach town of Goa, in the Western Coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of...
. In ten days, he ended up seeing a total of 55 films at the festival, and de Sica's Bicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves
Bicycle Thieves , also known as The Bicycle Thief, is a 1948 Italian neorealist film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a poor man searching the streets of Rome for his stolen bicycle, which he needs to be able to work. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Luigi...
was the film that influenced him the most; watching it "was an epiphany."
.
Career
The film festival and de Sica made a deep impact on Kashyap - he wanted to do something with films - and so he landed in Mumbai in June 1993 with INRIndian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
5,000-6,000 in his pocket. The money ran out after he stayed for a couple of days in a "good hotel." He spent the next eight months on the streets, staying in lofts, "sleeping on beaches," "under a water tank and in the St Xavier's [college] boys hostel." He managed to find work at Prithvi Theatre
Prithvi Theatre
Prithvi Theatre is one of Mumbai's best known theatres. It belongs to the Kapoor family, one of the most influential actor/director families in Bollywood. The theatre is named after Prithviraj Kapoor who first founded 'Prithvi Theatres', a travelling theatre company in 1944. The company ran for...
, but his first play remained incomplete because the director died. He then joined Makrand Deshpande
Makrand Deshpande
Makarand Deshpande is an Indian actor, writer, and director in Hindi and Marathi films and theatre. He is often seen in supporting and pivotal roles in various films like Jungle, Sarfarosh, Swades, Makdee, and Darna Zaroori Hai where he often plays drunkard, wayfarer roles. He has directed over 5...
's troupe - Samrangan - but left because he "could not face life. [He] wanted to act but [he] couldn't act with all that frustration."
Kashyap then wrote an "eight-page drama"—Main (I)—which did well at college drama festivals, and people advised him to pursue a career in writing. Kashyap's play was appreciated by directors like Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani
Govind Nihalani is an Indian director, cinematographer, and also a screenwriter and film producer. He has been directing Hindi films since the late seventies, and worked in the television medium.- Biography :...
and Saeed Mirza. Nihalani was working on a television series based on classic works, and he gave Kashyap a couple of books—a play by Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
, and Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
's The Trial
The Trial
The Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never...
—so that he could write scripts based on them. Kashyap read The Trial and told Nihalani that the book could only be made into an animation film, not a regular one. Nihalani asked him to reconsider. But the books had "confused [Kashyap] so much that [he] started thinking that [he] didn't know anything!" Kashyap started avoiding Nihalani; he went into "hibernation for a year and a half, and kept reading."
In 1995, an acquaintance introduced Kashyap to Shivam Nair
Shivam Nair
Shivam Nair is an Indian film and television director and editor who is best known for his television serial Sea Hawks and his 2006 film, Ahista Ahista....
, director of the 2006 film Ahista Ahista. The day they met, Kashyap watched Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
at Nair's place—on a "bad vcr" and using a "mutilated tape"; the film fascinated him. "I want to write something," Kashyap told Nair, and spent the next few days sitting in a corner as people like Sriram Raghavan
Sriram Raghavan
Sriram Raghavan is an Indian film director and screen writer. He is notable for producing a 45-minute documentary on Indian serial killer Raman Raghav and 2004 Hindi feature film Ek Hasina Thi produced by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Urmila Matondkar and Saif Ali Khan. His second feature film was...
, Sridhar Raghavan and Shiv Subramaniam discussed things. Sridhar introduced him to the world of books—authors like James M. Cain
James M. Cain
James Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir...
. The team was working on two projects, one of which was a docu-drama, Auto Narayan, based on the life of serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
Auto Shankar
Auto Shankar
Auto Shankar is the nickname of an Indian serial killer.-Murders:Shankar and his gang were found guilty of six murders, committed over a period of two years in 1988–1989. They were tried for the murders of Lalitha, Sudalai, Sampath, Mohan, Govindaraj and Ravi...
; the second one was a film scripted by Kashyap. Auto Narayan got delayed because the script penned by Subramaniam was not "working." Kashyap rewrote the script, and got credit for the same, and the second film was scrapped. But Kashyap had now proved himself, and so got access to a VCR and television set. He starting bringing in video tapes and spent many days watching films. Kashyap got his first major break when actor Manoj Bajpai
Manoj Bajpai
Manoj Bajpai , also credited as Manoj Bajpayee, is an Indian film actor, known for playing offbeat and unconventional roles. He first shot into fame with his breakthrough role in Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 film Satya.-Early life:...
, who was working on Daud
Daud (film)
Daud is a 1997 Hindi Road movie thriller by Ram Gopal Varma, starring Sanjay Dutt and Urmila Matondkar, with music composed by A. R. Rahman...
showed Auto Narayan to producer-director Ramgopal Varma. Varma liked Kashyap's work and hired him to write the script for Satya.
In September 1993, while Kashyap stayed at the St. Xavier's Boys Hostel, he used to hang out with the members of a band—Greek (later Pralay). He took copious notes on how they lead their lives—forty pages of a small notebook, and began writing the script—"in bits and pieces"—for a film that he called Mirage but which would later become Paanch. Kashyap had seen ex-VJ Luke Kenny
Luke Kenny
Luke Kenny is an Indian ex-video jockey, critic, musician, director, producer and actor.- Early life :Born in Calcutta on 14 June, Kenny moved to Bombay when he was a small child. His great-grandparents were Irish. They moved to Burma, where his grandfather was born. After World War II, his...
in a Vikram Kapadia play, and approached him with an incomplete script, but nothing came out of it. Later on, while working with Nair, he came across files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar Serial Murders
Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders
Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Dhyanoba Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and Munawar Harun Shah were commercial art students of the Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya , Tilak Road, Pune, India who committed 10 murders between January 1976 and March 1977, and were hanged to death on 27 November 1983. The quartet...
that took place in Pune
Pune
Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
in 1976.
He had also seen a film, Fun
Fun (film)
Fun is a 1994 independent drama film starring Alicia Witt and Renée Humphrey, and directed by Rafal Zielinski. Both Witt and Humphrey won a Special Jury Recognition for Technical Acting at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. The film centres on the murder of an elderly woman by two mentally unstable...
, about two mentally unstable girls murdering an elderly woman. And Paanch was ready to be made into a film. Kashyap says—
Satya was a commercial and critical success, and Kashyap collaborated with Varma on a few more films writing the screenplay and dialogues for Kaun? (1999) and the dialogues for Shool (1999). He also wrote the dialogues for Mani Ratnam's Yuva
Yuva
Yuva , originally titled Howrah Bridge is a feature film directed by Indian director Mani Ratnam and released in 2004. Simultaneously made in Hindi and Tamil , the prime objective of the movie was to motivate educated Indian youths to enter politics.The film tells the stories of three young men...
(2004). Kashyap made his directorial debut with Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead in 2000. However, the film ran into trouble with the Indian censor board
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...
and hasn't been released to date. In 2007, he adapted Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's 1978 short story "Quitters, Inc.
Quitters, Inc.
"Quitters, Inc." is a short story by Stephen King, first published in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.- Plot summary :The main character, Richard "Dick" Morrison, is a middle-aged man who smokes. One day he has a chance meeting with his old college roommate James "Jim" McCann who advises him to...
" as No Smoking, which despite being received well by critics, didn't do well at the box-office. This was followed by Return of Hanuman
Return of Hanuman
Return of Hanuman is a Hindi animation film about an adventure of the Hindu god Hanuman. It has been stated that the film is not a sequel to Hanuman; it has an independent storyline. It was produced by the Percept Picture Company and is directed by Anurag Kashyap. The music was composed by Tapas...
(previously Hanuman Returns) a Hindi animation film about adventures of the Hindu god Hanuman.
Then, in 2009, came Dev.D. Written and directed by him, the film is a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas
Devdas
Devdas is a Bengali Romance novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Essentially, it is a retelling of the Krishna, Radha, and Meera myths, the relationships between its three protagonists - Devdas, Parvati, and Chandramukhi - paralleling the Hindu deities'.-Plot summary:Devdas is a young man from...
, previously adapted for the screen by such revered filmmakers as P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy
Bimal Roy was one of the most acclaimed Indian film directors of all time. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films like Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini, making him an important director of Hindi cinema...
, and more recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an Indian film director. He is an alumnus of the Film and Television Institute of India...
. Dev.D was embraced by the media, critics and public alike, and is considered to be amongst path-breaking films in Hindi for the way it presented itself.
In March 2009, while announcing steering away from screenwriting, after his current assignments to concentrate on direction, Kashyap also announced two new film projects. Bombay Velvet, a thriller based on real incidents in 1960s, based on a script by Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Historian Gyan Prakash
Gyan Prakash
Gyan Prakash is a historian of modern India and the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University. Prakash is a member of the Subaltern Studies collective. Prakash received his BA in history from the University of Delhi in 1973, his MA in history from Jawaharlal Nehru University in...
, will be produced by Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
starring Aamir Khan
Aamir Khan
Aamir Hussain Khan is an Indian film actor, director and producer who has established himself as one of the leading actors of Hindi cinema....
. Doga, the second film, will be based on the Raj Comics super hero
Doga (comics)
Doga is a hero character appearing in Raj Comics, published and distributed across India. Created by Tarun kumar Wahi, Sanjay Gupta & artist Manu in the year 1992, Doga is the first and the only antihero character in Raj Comics...
.
In 2010 he played a child abuser in Onir
Onir
Onir is an Indian film director, editor, writer and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother... Nikhil, one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.-Life and career:...
's I Am, revealing that the role was meaningful to him because he had been sexually abused as a child. His next film as a director is That Girl in Yellow Boots
That Girl in Yellow Boots
That Girl in Yellow Boots is a 2011 Indian thriller film by director Anurag Kashyap, starring Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah. The film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, followed by Venice Film Festival after it played in several festivals...
.
Personal
Anurag was earlier married to Aarti — his college sweetheart whom he dated for nine years before getting married. They have a daughter Aaliya. On 30 April 2011, Kashyap got married to Kalki KoechlinKalki Koechlin
Kalki Koechlin is an Indian film actress of French descent who debuted in Anurag Kashyap's critically acclaimed 2009 Hindi film Dev.D...
at Kalki's maternal home in Ooty. They first met during the making of Dev D. Both Anurag and Kalki collaborated on making of the movie, Shaitan
Shaitan (film)
Shaitan is a 2011 Hindi thriller film, directed by Bejoy Nambiar starring Rajeev Khandelwal, Kalki Koechlin, Gulshan Devaiya, Shiv Pandit, Neil Bhoopalam, Kirti Kulhari, Rajit Kapoor, Pawan Malhotra and Raj Kumar Yadav. The film was released on June 10, 2011...
.
His younger brother Abhinav Kashyap
Abhinav Kashyap
Abhinav Singh Kashyap is an Indian film director and screenwriter. His directorial debut film, Dabangg was the biggest hit of 2010 and is currently the second biggest grossing bollywood film in history.-Early life:...
is also a screenwriter/ director and made his directorial debut in 2010 with the blockbuster Dabangg
Dabangg
Dabangg is a 2010 Hindi action film, directed by Abhinav Kashyap in his directorial debut and produced by Arbaaz Khan under the Arbaaz Khan Productions. The lead actors in the film include Arbaaz's elder brother, Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha...
starring Salman Khan. Abhinav also co-wrote the script with Anurag for the Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta (Director)
Sanjay Gupta is a Bollywood writer-director known for his dark thrillersSanjay Gupta comes from an affluent business family of South Mumbai. He completed his studies at Palm Beach School at Napean Sea Road and Sydenham College at Churchgate in Mumbai. He has frequently worked with Sanjay Dutt. The...
directed film Jung starring Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Dutt is an Indian Hindi film actor and politician. Dutt, son of Hindi film actors Sunil and Nargis Dutt, made his acting debut in 1981.-Personal life:...
and Jackie Shroff
Jackie Shroff
Jackie Shroff is an Indian actor. He has been in the industry for more than 28 years and has appeared in over 150 films.-Personal life:...
.
Actor
- Shagird (2011) as a Bunty Bhaiya (Gangster)
- Tera Kya Hoga Johny (2011) as Kashyap (Special Appearance)
- I AmI Am (2011 film)I Am is a 2011 documentary film written, narrated, and directed by Tom Shadyac. The documentary explores Shadyac's personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident, "the nature of humanity" and "world's ever-growing addiction to materialism." The film, shot with Shadyac and a team of four, contrasts...
(2011) - Luck by ChanceLuck by ChanceLuck By Chance is a 2009 Indian drama film written and directed by Zoya Akhtar. Produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, the film stars Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen Sharma in the lead roles...
(2009) as a Writer (As Himself) - Black Friday (2004) as a ISI Man
Director
- Gangs of WasseypurGangs of WasseypurGangs of Wasseypur is an upcoming Hindi crime film directed and produced by Anurag Kashyap. The film features an ensemble cast including Manoj Bajpai and Reemma Sen in the lead roles.-Cast:* Manoj Bajpai*Nawazuddin Siddiqui* Jaideep Ahlawat...
(2011) - That Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow Boots is a 2011 Indian thriller film by director Anurag Kashyap, starring Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah. The film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, followed by Venice Film Festival after it played in several festivals...
(2011) - Mumbai CuttingMumbai CuttingMumbai Cutting is a 2010 anthology Indian film comprising eleven short films, telling eleven different stories based on life in Mumbai, which are directed by a host of eleven directors: Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Kundan Shah, Revathy, Jahnu Barua, Rituparno Ghosh, Shashanka...
(2010) - GulaalGulaalGulaal is a 2009 Indian film directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. The film explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived...
(2009) - Dev.D (2009)
- Return of HanumanReturn of HanumanReturn of Hanuman is a Hindi animation film about an adventure of the Hindu god Hanuman. It has been stated that the film is not a sequel to Hanuman; it has an independent storyline. It was produced by the Percept Picture Company and is directed by Anurag Kashyap. The music was composed by Tapas...
(2007) - No SmokingNo Smoking (2007 film)No Smoking's soundtrack was released in September 2007. Lyrics by Gulzar.- External links :* * * * * *...
(2007) - Black Friday (2004)
- PaanchPaanchPaanch is an unreleased Indian film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Vijay Maurya, Joy Fernandes and Tejaswini Kolhapure. The film is "loosely" based on the 1976-77 Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders in Pune. The film never got a theatrical or...
(2003) (unreleased) - Last Train to MahakaliLast Train to MahakaliLast Train to Mahakali is short film written and directed by Indian film director-screenwriter Anurag Kashyap. It was made for the Star Plus television series Star Bestsellers and was first telecast in 1999. The film won the Special Jury Award at the 8th Annual Star Screen Awards...
(1999)
Story Writer
- Aiyaa (2012)
- Mumbai CuttingMumbai CuttingMumbai Cutting is a 2010 anthology Indian film comprising eleven short films, telling eleven different stories based on life in Mumbai, which are directed by a host of eleven directors: Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Kundan Shah, Revathy, Jahnu Barua, Rituparno Ghosh, Shashanka...
(2011) - That Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow Boots is a 2011 Indian thriller film by director Anurag Kashyap, starring Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah. The film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, followed by Venice Film Festival after it played in several festivals...
(2011) - Muskurake Dekh Zara (2010)
- UdaanUdaan (2010 film)Udaan is a 2010 Hindi film produced by Sanjay Singh, Anurag Kashyap, and Ronnie Screwvala; and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. The film was officially selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.- Plot :17-year-old Rohan is expelled from the reputed...
(2010) - GulaalGulaalGulaal is a 2009 Indian film directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. The film explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived...
(2009) - Dev DDev DDev.D is a 2009 Indian romance film released on 6 February 2009. Written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, the film is a modern day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel Devdas., previously adapted for the screen by P.C. Barua and Bimal Roy and more recently by Sanjay Leela...
(2009) - Fool N Final (2007)
- Water (2005)
- Paisa VasoolPaisa VasoolPaisa Vasool is a 2004 Indian film directed by Srinivas Bhashyam starring Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen. The film was produced by actress Manisha Koirala. The film is an uncredited remake of 2001 Hollywood movie High Heels and Low Lifes....
(2004) - Jung (2000)
- KaunKaun (film)Kaun is a 1999 Hindi suspense thriller directed by Ram Gopal Verma, written by Anurag Kashyap, and starring Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai and Sushant Singh. Other titles for the film were Evaru and Thriller . The movie defines modern Indian screenplay with mind-bending twists...
(1999) - Shool (1999)
- Last Train to MahakaliLast Train to MahakaliLast Train to Mahakali is short film written and directed by Indian film director-screenwriter Anurag Kashyap. It was made for the Star Plus television series Star Bestsellers and was first telecast in 1999. The film won the Special Jury Award at the 8th Annual Star Screen Awards...
(1999) - SatyaSatya (film)Satya is a 1998 Hindi crime film directed by Ram Gopal Varma with a screenplay by Anurag Kashyap and Saurabh Shukla. It stars J. D. Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpai, Urmila Matondkar and Shefali Shah...
(1998)
Producer
- Aiyaa (2012)
- MichaelMichael (2011 film)Michael is a 2011 Austrian drama film directed by Markus Schleinzer which resembles the famous Natascha Kampusch case from the offenders viewpoint...
(2011) - ShaitanShaitan (film)Shaitan is a 2011 Hindi thriller film, directed by Bejoy Nambiar starring Rajeev Khandelwal, Kalki Koechlin, Gulshan Devaiya, Shiv Pandit, Neil Bhoopalam, Kirti Kulhari, Rajit Kapoor, Pawan Malhotra and Raj Kumar Yadav. The film was released on June 10, 2011...
(2011) - Gangs Of Wasseypur (2011)
- That Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow BootsThat Girl in Yellow Boots is a 2011 Indian thriller film by director Anurag Kashyap, starring Kalki Koechlin and Naseeruddin Shah. The film was first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, followed by Venice Film Festival after it played in several festivals...
(2011) - UdaanUdaan (2010 film)Udaan is a 2010 Hindi film produced by Sanjay Singh, Anurag Kashyap, and Ronnie Screwvala; and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. The film was officially selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard category at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.- Plot :17-year-old Rohan is expelled from the reputed...
(2010) - Aamir (2008)
Further reading
External links
- Anurag Kashyap's blog at PassionForCinema.com
- An Interview with Anurag Kashyap at Indian AuteurIndian AuteurIndian Auteur is an English-language e-magazine and website devoted to film criticism. Established in 2009, it is published by NSFI, a New Delhi-based film initiative, involved in organizing film screenings and independent film production....
- Anurag Kashyap - Filmography at Bollywood HungamaBollywood HungamaBollywood Hungama is a leading Bollywood entertainment website, owned by hungama.com....
.