Director Anurag Kashyap, in a recent interview, spoke about his frequent collaborator, actor Vicky Kaushal, and revealed that he is not in touch with him. The Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) also spoke about not liking Vicky’s last Chhaava (2025) stating that he wasn’t the biggest fan of the film’s exploitative sensibilities.
In an interview with The Lallantop, Anurag said that he watched portions of Chhaava, especially the climactic torture sequence, just for his friend Viineet Kumar Siingh, who played a supporting role in the film. When asked if he admired Vicky’s performance in the lead role, Anurag said, “I don’t have much interaction with him much these days. I don’t judge him, because every person has their own reasons… I don’t repeat myself. What I wanted to say, I said.”
He added, “This is why I left Mumbai. Every person has their own ambitions, and it is up to them on how they choose to achieve them. It’s not my responsibility. It took me a while to detach myself. But the atmosphere in Bollywood has become more money-minded. People are looking at ‘crores’ in their decision-making. This is what I ran away from. I don’t want to return to that world.”
On Chhaava, Anurag further said, “More than Chhaava, it felt like The Passion of the Christ. I didn’t like it. The emotion that was being created out of discomfort, I don’t appreciate. I basically watched it for Viineet. I don’t want to judge. I didn’t understand the filmmaker’s storytelling choices, but others did. That’s why I’m not a part of the mainstream; I’m a more romantic sort of person.”
Anurag agreed with the film being described as ‘exploitative’, and said that he wasn’t able to sit through it. “I’ve stopped watching Hindi films anyway. I watched Dhadak 2, Laapataa Ladies, and Chamkila, that’s it.
Chhaava’s director Laxman Utekar has previously spoken about Anurag’s decision to leave Mumbai, “Leave if you want to, there is no compulsion,” he had said. “See, ye industry aisi hai ki you have to be mentally and creatively happy, then only we can make a great… agar aapka mann nahi hai yahan rehne ka toh aap great film kaise banaoge? Aap chale jao, isse acha (You can only make movies if you are creatively happy, and there’s no point in forcing yourself if you can’t put your heart in it).”
He concluded, “There are some filmmakers who think they’ve attained nirvana and can share their wisdom with everyone else. If you think the audience didn’t understand your film, why did you make it? You shouldn’t have made it. Go write a book or something. But if you’ve made a film, the audience comes first.”