Anurag Kashyap is a director, producer, screenwriter and actor in the Bollywood film industry. He was born on 10 September 1972 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. His zodiac sign is Virgo. He completed his schooling from Green School, Dehradun, and Sindhiya School, Gwalior. He earned a bachelor’s degree in science from Hans Raj College, University of Delhi. 

His father’s name is Prakash Singh. He has a brother, Abhinav Kashyap, who is also a film director and screenwriter. His sister’s name is Anubhuti Kashyap. 

In the past, he was married to Aarti Bajaj from 2003 to 2009, and Kalki Koechlin from 2011 to 2015. He has a daughter, Aaliyah Kashyap.

Anurag’s favourites

His hobbies include writing books and swimming. 

Anurag likes to eat cheese, fish and chocolate.

His favourite actors are Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Marilyn Monroe, Golshifteh Farahani and Scarlett Johansson.

His favourite movies are, Bicycle Thieves, Pyaasa, Bandit Queen, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam.

Interesting facts about Anurag

As a child, Anurag was considering a career in film industry, but after school he changed his mind and wanted to become a scientist. 

During his years at Hans Raj College, he decided to become a director. 

In the year 1993, after graduating, he joined ‘Jan Natya Manch’, a street theatre group.

He attended the International Film Festival of India and watched more than 55 films in just 10 days. 

Anurag’s inspiration

He was greatly inspired by Vittorio De Sica's ‘Bicycle Thieves’ and nurtured a dream of making films himself.

In the pursuit of his dreams, he left home with Rs 5000 and moved to Mumbai in 1993.

Early in his career, he could not find any sort of work and spent his nights on benches. 

He took up his first job at Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, but his first play remained incomplete due to the death of the director.

The turning point in his life came when Manoj Bajpayee offered him to write a film for Ram Gopal Varma, titled ‘Satya’, which proved to be superhit at the box office.

Anurag’s debut

His directorial debut ‘Paanch’ came out in the year 2005. 

In the year 2009, he established his film production company ‘Anurag Kashyap Films Private Limited (AKFPL)’.

He is known for his amazing filmmaking style, in which he does extensive research on each character and uses limited props.

Along with directing and producing films, he has also worked as an actor in some films like, Shagird, Black Friday, Happy New Year, No Smoking, Bhoothnath Returns, and others.

International recognition 

In the year 2013, he was honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Arts and Letters) by the French government.

He is also known for his guerrilla-filmmaking technique. Under this technique, easily available props and equipment are used to add more realism in the movies. 

The British director was so inspired by Kashyap's works that he adapted Kashyap's film-making style into some scenes of the Oscar-winning film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

Anurag’s films as a director

In 2012, Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ was released, which set a benchmark for other filmmakers. 

Some of his popular movies are, Dev D (2009), Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016), Lust Stories (2018), Masaan (2015), Mukkabaaz (2017), Ghost Stories (2020), Udaan (2010), Udta Punjab (2016) and The Lunchbox (2013). 

Anurag’s latest projects

Anurag’s latest film as a director released on 24 May 2023. The film ‘Kennedy’ is an adventure drama. The actors in the film are Rahul Bhat, Jeniffer Piccinato, Sunny Leone, Megha Burman and Abhilash Thapliyal.