Did multiple Oscar-winner Alejandro González Iñárritu watch Maharaja and offer Anurag Kashyap an acting gig?

Also read – Anurag Kashyap declares he is moving out of Mumbai because he is ‘disgusted’ by Hindi film industry: ‘I was ghosted by friends’

Maharaja featured Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role, and was a major box office success last year. Produced on a relatively small budget of Rs 20 crore, the film made nearly Rs 200 crore worldwide. Nearly Rs 100 crore of this total came from China. Maharaja was also a huge success when it landed on Netflix, but it also attracted some controversy for its plot and themes.

In addition to his role in Maharaja, Kashyap also appeared in a cameo in Vijay’s Leo, and was the co-lead of the Hotstar show Bad Cop. More recently, he appeared in the Malayalam film Rifle Club. In an interview, Kashyap said that five of his movies are lying unreleased, for various reasons. “I have made five films that are lying unreleased. Where is Kennedy? And whose hands is Kennedy in? It’s in the hands of some people who’ve never made films before. People who made Kennedy in the studio are all gone. And now, the people who are there, the directive given to them is to up the share prices, generate profits, cost recovery… That’s all there is. Nobody is interested in films. It doesn’t matter if Kennedy went to Cannes; it doesn’t matter if it had such a massive reception at festivals. Forget outside India, they’ve seen the reception in India, but where is the film?” he told The Hollywood Reporter India.

Iñárritu’s last film was Bardo. The Cruise project is also set to star Sandra Huller, Jesse Plemons, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed and others. The logline of the film reads, “The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.”