Anurag Kashyap responds to not having delivered a hit in last 10 years: ‘Even my Gangs of Wasseypur lost Rs 8 crore but…’

Anurag Kashyap recently opened up about the underperformance of some of his films, maintaining that he had as much faith in them as in his other projects.

By: Entertainment Desk

Kochi | Updated: November 2, 2025 07:25 AM IST

5 min read

Anurag Kashyap recently opened up about the underperformance of some of his films, maintaining that he had as much faith in them as in his other projects.

Anurag Kashyap reveals that his globally acclaimed two-part crime drama saga Gangs of Wasseypur was not a hit. (Credit: Express Archives, IMDb)

Despite being one of the most celebrated filmmakers in contemporary Indian cinema, box office success has not been something Anurag Kashyap has often experienced. In fact, some of his movies have bombed so badly that he is frequently ridiculed by haters as unbankable. In a recent interview, he opened up about the underperformance of some of his films, maintaining that he had as much faith in them as in his other projects. He also mentioned that there may be instances when a director fails to make a film exactly as envisioned.

Asserting that he made Dobaaraa because he had never worked with the theme of cutting between timelines, Anurag said that Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, meanwhile, was quite different from his other films. “One story was from Kashmir, and the other from Mumbai. It wasn’t inspired by anything. However, I couldn’t tell the story properly. Secondly, after we shot a bit, I left India for some reason. I had problems. Then we couldn’t shoot because of Covid, and afterwards, the producer left the project. Then we sold everything and finished the film somehow because two newcomers were involved in it,” he said during a conversation with Digital Commentary.

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Opening up about Choked, he expressed that he really liked its script and was keen on making it. When the interviewer pointed out that the movie felt incomplete, Anurag admitted this and added, “News footage showing the atmosphere of what was going on during the time of demonetisation was of great importance in the movie. That’s what made the film complete. When we were making the film’s rough cut, we had taken permission for everything. By the time the film was completed, all the permissions had been taken away from us. No one except NDTV allowed us to use their footage.”

Anurag Kashyap further revealed that the shelving of his much-hyped Maximum City by streaming giant Netflix also took a toll on his mental health. Mentioning that he spent two years on the project, he stated: “The reason why they stopped Maximum City appeared in the first 15 pages of the script. They could have stopped me right there without wasting my time. But they didn’t, apparently, so that I wouldn’t feel bad. The problem wasn’t even that big. It pertained to just one page, one shot. We could have had the shot removed, and nothing would have happened.” He also shared that it was planned as a three-part movie running over nine hours.

Watch SCREEN’s exclusive interview with Anurag Kashyap here:

This resulted in a fallout between Netflix and Anurag, who had previously collaborated on blockbuster projects like Sacred Games (2018-19) and Lust Stories (2018). “They were seeing the kind of effort I was putting into creating the project and how much it was affecting me. They could have stopped me, but they didn’t,” he said, while adding that not everyone is like that and maintained that he was talking about just one or two people.

He also responded to criticism that he has not delivered a hit in the last 10 years, “Meri film ne ek ticket bhi nahi bhecha tabhi unka nuksaan jo hai na saal ki 80% films jo flop hoti hai usse kum hai.” (Even if my film didn’t sell a single ticket, their loss is still less than the 80% of films that flop every year).

Revealing that his globally acclaimed two-part crime drama saga Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) was also not a hit, contrary to popular belief, Anurag stated, “In fact, it was a massive flop. According to Viacom18 Motion Pictures’ final figures, it incurred a loss of Rs 8 crore. None of my films has been a hit. They succeed after their time. This generation has not seen any of my movies in theatres; they watched them by downloading them from the internet. So all these people who ask why I am not making movies or where I went, I want them to show me tickets proving that they watched my films in theatres. If I went away, it’s because of them.” Mentioning that he often meets people who liked several of his films, Anurag wondered how many of them had actually watched them in theatres.

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