Anurag Kashyap fires back at Vivek Agnihotri's claim that he was drunk, difficult to deal with: 'Jhootha hai ye aadmi'

Hindustan Times

14-05-2025

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has fired back at fellow filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri after the latter claimed that Kashyap was a 'drunkard' who was difficult to deal with on the sets of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, a film on which they worked together. Anurag has called the statement a lie, presenting his side of the events. (Also read: Vivek Agnihotri says it became difficult to handle Anurag Kashyap on Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal set: 'Bahut sharab peeta tha')
On Wednesday morning, Anurag shared a screengrab of a news report detailing Vivek's statement about him. The headline read: 'Anurag Kashyap was a drunkard who palmed off work to Vikram Motwane': Vivek Agnihotri says it became difficult to deal with the filmmaker.
Anurag wrote below the screenshot, "Kitna jhootha hai ye aadmi. Shooting London me hui thi (This man is a liar. The shoot took place in London). I was in India. He didn't want the script by Motwane or me. He wanted to make the Lagaan of football and took his own writer to write that crappy script. Neither me, nor @motwayne went on the set ever."
Anurag ended the note with a message to Vivek: 'Stop posturing @vivekagnohotri'. Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag's longtime associate, who was also named in his statement by Vivek, also shared Anurag's Instagram Story, adding his seal of approval to it.
Earlier this week, in an interview with Digital Commentary, Vivek claimed Anurag's drinking habits during the making of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal made the working environment challenging. "Anurag uss time bahut sharab peeta tha toh usko time ka koi hisaab nahi tha (Anurag used to drink a lot at that time and had no sense of time). Phir voh Vikramaditya Motwane ko le aaye, bola mera RK ladka hai, vo help karega. Dheere dheere saara kaam Vikramaditya ko hi de diya. Main jo banana chah raha tha, yeh log ki soch kuch alag thi, yeh kuch aur hi banana chah rahe the (Then he brought Vikramaditya Motwane, saying 'he's my RK boy, he'll help out.' Gradually, all the work was handed over to Vikramaditya. What I wanted to make was different; their vision was entirely something else). Ultimately, we were at loggerheads. The production house had a word with Anurag… Anurag ko handle karna mushkil ho gaya (It became difficult to handle Anurag). Because only an alcoholic knows what an alcoholic goes through. It became a very big problem.'
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala and directed by Vivek Agnihotri for UTV Motion Pictures, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal starred John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi, and Boman Irani. The sports drama, released in 2007, was only moderately successful at the box office.