Anurag Kashyap spoke about Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, and how he began reconnecting with celebs, including Abhay Deol, as Sushant’s death ‘hit him hard’. The 34-year-old actor was found dead in his Mumbai home on June 14, 2020, after an alleged suicide. In a new interview, Anurag said he was worried about Abhay as he was hurt ‘very badly’ after Anurag had said in a 2020 interview that working with Abhay during Dev D (2009) was ‘painfully difficult’.
Now, in a new interview, Anurag has said that he apologized to Abhay Deol for speaking publicly about him in 2020, despite the two not being on talking terms since Dev D (2009). The filmmaker added that when he reached out to him after Sushant’s death, the actor was ‘non-responsive’. He said he was ‘worried and so concerned’ because Abhay was upset with him for his comments about their experience during Dev D’s Delhi shoot.
When asked if he felt bad listening to Abhay call him ‘liar and a toxic person’ in a recent interview, Anurag Kashyap said in a chat with RJ Stutee on Hindustan Times’ celebrity talk show Aur Batao, “No, in the sense, Abhay is hurt. Abhay and me have not spoken since Dev D. He had not even come for the film’s promotion. And the problems we had, or I had with him or he had with me, we never spoke to each other about it. So, somebody was doing an article about why a brilliant actor like Abhay Deol is not there in films anymore and what about filmmakers like me, who have worked with him. So, I spoke about my experience with him. It was in all my honesty. I found out from another filmmaker that was working with him that he (Abhay) is very hurt. So I was like okay, but I don’t even know how to reach him, he does not even talk to me.”
Anurag then spoke about the late Sushant Singh Rajput, and said, “Then a tragedy happened. When SSR passed away, three weeks prior to that through Uday Singh Gauri, who was his manager, he (SSR) was trying to reach out (to me). He had ghosted me once long ago, and now he was trying to reach out and I was like ‘I am done with stars’. I do not want to go through an experience again… but when he passed away, it hit me so hard. I was like ‘why could I just not have spoken to him?’ Maybe he genuinely meant it. Maybe if I could have talked, maybe I could have made a difference. So that day, I started reaching out to people I had not been in touch with, which included Abhay, KK Menon, and a lot of people. I called Abhay, and Abhay was non-responsive, and he was upset. And I said ‘listen, I know you are upset, you want to scream at me, shout at me, do that but tell me you are okay’. I was worried and so concerned and that’s why when I released that because we were not talking to each other, and I had spoken in public, it really hurt him very badly… tera-chaudah saal purani baat pe hum public mein aise baat kar rahe hain jo ki personal mein honi chahiye (we should have addressed our issues in private, not publicly). So, I apologised to him for speaking in public…”
Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap, who worked together in the film Dev D, have been speaking about each other in recent interviews. The actor had denied Anurag’s allegation in a 2020 interview that he had demanded staying in a five-star hotel during the filming of Dev D. Days after Abhay called Anurag a ‘liar’ and a ‘toxic person’ for speaking about him in media, Anurag had said in another interview that he was ready to again apologize to Abhay, and that everyone has their ‘own version of truth’.
