Abhay Deol says Anurag Kashyap ‘didn’t direct me at all’ on Dev.D, claims he came up with idea for the film: ‘It wasn’t like I was even asking him’
Actor Abhay Deol, who recently revived his old tiff with director Anurag Kashyap when he called him a ‘liar’ and a ‘toxic’ person, claimed, once again, in an interview that he came up with the idea for their film Dev.D. Directed by Anurag, the film became a cult hit and strengthened Abhay’s reputation as the poster boy of parallel Hindi cinema.
But in the following years, it was revealed that Anurag and Abhay weren’t on cordial terms while making the movie. Anurag claimed in an interview with HuffPost that Abhay insisted on being put up in a five-star hotel despite the production not having the money, and Abhay retorted recently when he said that Anurag had spread lies about him in public.
In a conversation with actor Anupam Kher at his acting school, he was asked if he has ever worked with filmmakers who have no idea how to deal with actors. Abhay said, “It’s not often that this happens, but it happens. Like in Dev.D, Anurag didn’t direct me at all. He didn’t say anything, he just let me be. But then, that was an idea I had come up with and a character I knew. So, it wasn’t even like I was asking him. He allowing me to do my thing, and not saying anything as a director to an actor, encouraged me to think what I’m doing must be right. And I continued doing that.”
Anupam interrupted Abhay and pointed out that there are some directors who think of actors as ‘furniture’, and believe that ‘form is more important’. Abhay then spoke about directors who think that ‘breaking’ an actor is the best way to extract performances, without taking names. “There are very famous directors who are known to break their actors, physically, emotionally. They feel if they can break you, they can get an honest performance out of you. I think those directors have a handicap… He can’t inspire you, and he has the arrogance to think that he or she is some maestro, and that you couldn’t have been capable of performing had you not been broken. That is highly untrue, don’t let anybody teach you that.”
Reacting to Abhay’s recent accusations against him, Anurag said that he said what he believed to be true about their experience on Dev.D, and subsequently apologised to Abhay. He didn’t, however, deny the veracity of his comments. Abhay was last seen in the miniseries Trial By Fire, and Anurag’s new film, Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, will be released this week.
