Anurag Kashyap says he let Karan Johar down with Bombay Velvet, says he would have ‘flourished’ if the budget was less

As Bombay Velvet completes eight years of release, director Anurag Kashyap said that he'd have made a much better film if his budget had been restricted.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | May 16, 2023 10:10 AM IST

3 min read

Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar worked together on Bombay Velvet.

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Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap reflected on the critical and commercial failure of his 2015 gangster film Bombay Velvet, which completes eight years of release this week. He said that he has walked away with key learnings after watching his close collaborator Vikramaditya Motwane’s recent Prime Video series Jubilee.

In an interview with The Times of India, Kashyap said that Motwane achieved more with less on the 10-episode drama, which is set only a few years before the events shown in Bombay Velvet. Had his budget been restrained, the filmmaker said, he would’ve made a better film. “Had I looked at it as an ambitious Rs 300 crore film that I was to make in Rs 90 crore, I would have flourished,” he said.

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But he became ‘overwhelmed’ by the resources at his disposal, which hurt the film. Bombay Velvet starred Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma as star-crossed lovers in post-Independence India. Karan Johar was stunt-cast as the film’s villain, and he hasn’t acted since. Kashyap defended his decision to cast the flamboyant filmmaker in Bombay Velvet, and said, “He didn’t let me down, I let him down.”

Kashyap and KJo had their differences in the past, but they buried the hatchet and came together to work on the film. “I’ve judged him a lot. When I met him, I found him to be like me but on the other side of the coin. He also treats his filmmakers, people, and his directors and gives them as much freedom and empowerment. He is a misunderstood person,” Kashyap told Pinkvilla last year. KJo didn’t charge any money for his work in Bombay Velvet, and according to a 2015 PTI report, he received a giant cheque for Rs 11 as a symbolic gesture.

Also starring Kay Kay Menon, Satyadeep Misra and Siddhartha Basu, Bombay Velvet featured music by Amit Trivedi, and was co-edited by Martin Scorsese’s longtime collaborator, the Oscar-winning Thelma Schoonmaker. The film was co-produced by Motwane, who directed each episode of Jubilee. The show premiered on Prime Video recently to very positive reviews.

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