Actor Abhay Deol and director Anurag Kashyap worked together on the 2009 film Dev.D, and even though the film was successful, they never worked together again. In previous interviews, Kashyap has spoken about his fallout with Abhay. But in a new interview, the actor accused Kashyap of spreading “a lot of lies” about him.
In a chat with mid-day, Abhay called the filmmaker a “liar” and a “toxic” person. When asked what prompted the fallout, Abhay said, “He went in public and said a lot of lies about me.” He quoted an earlier interview in which Kashyap had said that Abhay demanded a five-star hotel when the film’s unit was struggling with a shoestring budget. The actor explained, “So, one lie I’ll give you for example, that I demanded a hotel room. He actually came up to me and said, ‘Listen, you can’t stay with us, you are a Deol so I’m going to put you up in a hotel room’. He literally told me that, I am saying this on camera. And what he told the press was, I demanded it.”
Kashyap, in a 2020 interview with HuffPost, had said, “He (Abhay) wanted to do artistic movies but also wanted the mainstream benefits. The benefits and luxuries of being a ‘Deol’. He would stay in a five-star hotel while the entire crew stayed in Paharganj for a film that was made on a very tight budget.”
Abhay further said that “there was clearly a lot going on which was not professional.” The Trial By Fire actor continued, “I was very easily manipulated at that time. So now, when I look back I’m like, ‘Good one, I see you’.” The actor claimed that after Kashyap’s interview was published, the filmmaker sent him apologetic messages. “And he was saying if you want to shout at me, shout at me, scream at me and I was like, ‘I don’t care, it has been 12 years, you don’t feature in my thoughts and even now, get over it’.”
The actor said that this was a “good lesson” for him to learn. “Heart on sleeve and all is all very great, but you get taken advantage of, you are reactive, so he was a good lesson for me to learn and I just avoid it because I don’t need toxic people in my life. Life’s too short and there’s so much more to explore, but he’s definitely a liar, he’s definitely a toxic person and I would warn people of him,” he said.
Kashyap had previously said that it “was painfully difficult to work with” Abhay and the two haven’t talked since they wrapped formalities on Dev.D. In this interview, Abhay also said that he has never seen any Anurag Kashyap film since Dev.D.