Anurag Kashyap says Vijay Sethupathi ‘helped' him with Maharaja role because he wanted to get his daughter married: ‘I couldn't afford it otherwise'
Anurag Kashyap is a formidable filmmaker, but lately, he's been gaining a lot of traction as an actor, especially in South Indian films. While his breakthrough in the South was R Ajay Gnanamuthu's 2018 Tamil action thriller Imaikka Nodigal, he recently grabbed eyeballs with his villainous role in Nithilan Saminathan's blockbuster Maharaja.
In an event hosted by The Hindu, Kashyap recalled how Maharaja star Vijay Sethupathi convinced him to return to the South as an actor. 'After Imaikka Nodigal, I said no to a lot of South films because every other day, a South film would come to me. Again, it started post Kennedy. I was in the post-production of Kennedy. I was constantly meeting Vijay Sethupathi at my neighbour's,' said Kashyap, referring to his yet-unreleased action thriller Kennedy, starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone.
He added, 'He (Vijay Sethupathi) said there's this amazing story, and they've been trying to reach you. I said no first. Then he helped me find something in Kennedy. He has a 'Thank You' card in Kennedy. Then I couldn't say no to him. Then I said, 'Listen, I have to get my daughter married next year, and I don't think I can afford it.' Then Vijay Sethupathi said, 'We'll help you.' And Maharaja happened (laughs).' Anurag's daughter, YouTuber Aaliyah Kashyap tied the knot with longtime boyfriend Shane Gregoire last year.
After the success of Mahraja, Anurag Kashyap returned to acting in the South with Vetrimaaran's period political crime thriller Viduthalai Part 2, also starring Sethupathi, and Aashiq Abu's Malayalam action comedy Rifle Club last year. He also played the antagonist in Aditya Datt's Hindi crime thriller show Bad Cop. He'll next be seen in the Hindi-Telugu film Dacoit: A Love Story, starring Adivi Sesh.
Kashyap admitted he's enjoying acting now that filmmaking is going through a crisis of not taking enough risks. Despite acting on stage for years, he initially considered himself 'terrible' and 'not made for cinema.' 'I hadn't seen a worst actor on screen,' said Kashyap, on his earlier tryst with acting in films. 'I learnt from my bad acting how not to direct actors, how to extract performances from them,' said Kashyap.
Also Read | Bollywood is insecure, creatively bankrupt, steals ideas from South, says Nawazuddin Siddiqui: 'Anurag Kashyap was forced to quit'
Interestingly, his maiden breakthrough with acting came right after his biggest debacle as a director, the period crime musical Bombay Velvet (2015), starring Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. 'Bombay Velvet lost a lot of money. I owed a lot of money to the studio (Fox Star Studios) that I didn't have. And that studio was making another film, called Akira with Murugadoss. They said we'd write off the money you owe to the studio if you agree to act. That was the easiest transaction I ever had in my life. So I agreed to act, and that debt was written off in exchange of my acting. So I was the highest paid unpaid debut actor,' added Kashyap.
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