Filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane have been collaborators for long. Anurag was the producer and co-writer for Vikramaditya’s debut Udaan (2010), the latter has also worked with the former on Dev D (2009) and Sacred Games (2018), among other projects. The two also share a deep friendship since they first met in Mumbai’s Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC), where Vikramaditya was studying with Anurag’s first wife Aarti Bajaj.

In a new interview with Hollywood Reporter India, Anurag and Vikramaditya both looked back at their friendship over the years. Anurag reminisced about how Vikramaditya used to be very quick to angry outbursts. “He was a very different human being, always quick to anger. He was angry with the world, always shouting, while I was already working in the industry. I learned photography, sound, and so many things from him. He had an understanding of the world, and I would take from him. I knew what he was capable of, but he was his own enemy. He didn’t even earn a rupee back then. I used to write scripts for him, knowing they wouldn’t get made.”

Anurag also revealed that once Vikramaditya’s feedback on Dev D made him cry on the film’s release day. “Dev D’s premiere was happening, and the first review came out, giving the film five stars. We had disagreed a lot on Dev D because he had only done the first draft. I changed his draft, and he hated the ending,” said Anurag. He added, “I read the first review and it was five stars. I was so happy that I called him to tell him about it. He replied, ‘Shove those five stars up your a**; the film could have been better.’ And I was howling at the premiere.”

On the work front, Vikramaditya’s latest release was the Netflix series Black Warrant, which received critical acclaim while Anurag was last seen in the role of an antagonist in the Malayalam film Rifle Club (2024).