Anurag Kashyap recalls quitting film after big star’s 7 managers scolded him for messaging him directly: ‘He didn’t even reply’

Anurag Kashyap recalled an incident when a big star’s multiple layers of management prevented him from communicating directly with the actor.

Anurag Kashyap spoke about rising entourage costs.

“Bahut faltu kharcha aa gaya hai (There is a lot of unnecessary expenditure),” said filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, while addressing the exponential rise in entourage costs of actors and how filmmaking has become significantly more expensive in recent times. In a recent interaction, the filmmaker also recalled an incident when a big star’s multiple layers of management prevented him from communicating directly with the actor — a situation that ultimately made him quit the project.

Speaking on the YouTube channel Game Changers, Anurag explained how costs have spiralled out of control due to the growing entourage culture. “Make-up is a department in a film, but now every individual actor has their own make-up artist,” he said. Recalling the modest scale of his earlier films, the Gangs of Wasseypur director mentioned, “My film Nishaanchi had one make-up artist with two assistants, and they did the make-up for the whole team.”

He then pointed out how the scenario has changed drastically today. “But in other films, every actor has their individual make-up artist,” he said, adding that this trend significantly increases the production budget. Anurag also highlighted how the number of vanity vans has multiplied. “In Gangs of Wasseypur, all the actors used to share one vanity van and the rest would sit outside on chairs. These days, one actor has three vanity vans — one for meetings, one to take rest in, and one for their assistants.”

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The filmmaker shared a personal anecdote about his experience dealing with a top actor’s team. He said that when he once reached out to an actor for a language workshop, instead of hearing back from the actor, he was confronted by the star’s massive management team. “The actor did not respond to me, but seven of his managers came to me. They told me, ‘How can you message the actor like this? You can’t do this.’ There were seven people who were sitting there to decide and discuss everything. I left the film. I had written the script, but I gifted it to them.” When asked to reveal the actor’s name, Anurag refused, saying, “I can’t take his name. He is a big actor.”

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Earlier, in a conversation with Janice Sequeira, Anurag Kashyap had opened up about how the skyrocketing demands of actors and their teams add to the cost of production. He mentioned, “Somebody has a chef who charges Rs 2 lakh per day to make this strange healthy food. Jo dekh ke lagta tha ye khana hai? Yeh to bird feed hai (I wonder, ‘Is this food or bird feed?’).” Indicating how tiny the portion sizes were, he added, “Itna chhota sa aata tha (The portion size is too small).”

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