Anurag Kashyap has made accusations against Abhay Deol’s behaviour on the set of their film Dev D, and Deol has responded. While promoting his Netflix show Trial By Fire, Abhay discussed how his friend Anurag had lied about him to the press. When Anurag said the actor sought a suite at a five-star hotel during shooting for Dev D, the actor refuted the claim. Abhay went on to label Anurag a liar and a “toxic person,” describing the director as such.
He said:
“I had my heart on my sleeve, and all that is great – but you get taken advantage of, and then you get reactive. So, he (Anurag Kashyap) was a good lesson for me. Then I just avoided him, because I don’t need toxic people in my life. Life is too short, and there is so much more to explore. But he (Anurag) is definitely a liar and a toxic person. And I would warn people about him.”
Anurag had described his time on the set of Dev D with Abhay Deol as “painfully terrible” in a 2020 interview. Anurag claims that the actor desired both “popular perks” and the “luxuries of being a Deol” and the opportunity to star in more creative films. Abhay is the nephew of famous actor Dharmendra and the cousin of stars Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. Even though the film “was done on a very low budget,” Anurag said in the same interview that Abhay “remained in a five-star hotel while the whole team stayed in Paharganj” in Delhi during the shoot for Dev D. For this reason, Anurag had previously said, “a lot of his directors turned away” from Abhay.
Actor Abhay Deol has spoken out against director Anurag Kashyap’s claims that he was rude and disruptive on the set of 2009’s Dev D, labeling Kashyap a “liar” and “poison person” in a recent interview
After Anurag lied about him, Abhay criticized him. “He (Anurag) does that all the time. He was like, ‘You want to shout at me, scream at me…’ And I was like, ‘I don’t care. It’s been 12 years. You don’t feature in my thoughts even now; get over it.’ He said, ‘Forgive me because I have had a bad day.’ I said you are forgiven. I never had a personal agenda. It was far bigger than just me. That is how I feel about everything. How much of this is he going to do? And I would have never taken his name and said the things, had he not gone public either,” Abhay said.
A year ago, Abhay referred to Anurag as a “gaslighter” in an interview with Bollywood Hungama. In Anurag’s written and directed film Dev D, they had previously collaborated. After the completion of the film, the two never worked together again. The film Dev D was a reimagining of the famous Bengali book Devdas by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Kalki Koechlin, Mahie Gill, and Dibyendu Bhattacharya also appeared in the film.