Anurag Kashyap: "Gangs of Wasseypur Made Me and Ruined Me" | InFocus | THR India

In this episode of InFocus, Anurag Kashyap sits down with Anupama Chopra for an unflinchingly honest conversation about the highs and lows of his three-decade career. Anurag opens up about the devastating cancellation of his magnum opus Maximum City — a project he had been attached to since 2009 — which led to two heart attacks, depression, a 35-kilo weight gain, and a stint in rehab. He reveals how Kennedy was born from that darkness: written in a single whiskey-fuelled night, 55 handwritten pages, with Tchaikovsky playing in the background. The conversation moves through the long shadow of Gangs of Wasseypur, which Anurag describes as the film that both made and ruined him, and the painful audience disconnect he felt with his two-part family saga Nishanti.

Anurag also reflects on his move to Bangalore, where a quieter life surrounded by trees and birdsong has given him the space to write on his own terms. He talks candidly about becoming a director, writer, and actor for hire — finding freedom in shedding the infrastructure of a production house. Anupama presses him on the state of independent cinema in India, and Anurag laments the lack of solidarity among indie filmmakers, contrasting it with the grassroots spirit of films like Nudge Knock and the Gujarati film Lo. He closes by sharing his immediate priorities: finishing three acting commitments, a full health reset, and then heading to floors with two new scripts he's already written — one potentially in Malayalam.