Anurag Kashyap Biography

Anurag Kashyap
Date of Birth
10 September 1972, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Spouse
Kalki Koechlin (30 April 2011 - present)
Aarti Bajaj (2003 - 2009) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark
Frequently casts the actor Kay Kay Menon who is a friend in personal life. (e.g. Paanch, Black Friday, Gulaal))

Frequently uses music composed by Amit Trivedi (e.g. Dev D (2009), Aamir (2008) and in his tv miniseries 'Rajuben' in the show 'Specials @ 10' too)

Known for his extensive use of lighting and colour-effect filters to enhance mood or dramatic effects in his films.

Frequently collaborates with Raj Singh Chaudhary, Vikramaditya Motwane, Aarti Bajaj and Vishal Bhardwaj in his creative team for making his movies

Frequently casts the actor Aditya Srivastava in important roles for his films (Paanch, Black Friday, Gulaal)

Frequently his movies have themes of drug and alchohol abuse, excessive smoking, teenage angst, clinical depression, emotional abuse, extreme rage and frustration, arrogance, and above all self destruction. These qualities are found in his films due to their reflections in his personal life from time to time.

Most of his movies deal with very realistic scenarios and take excerpts from the scandals seen in newspapers in day to day life (eg the Joshi-Abhayankar Pune murder case reference in Paanch (2003), the 1993 Mumbai blasts in Black Friday (2004), the black BMW accident and MMS scandal in Dev D (2009))

Frequent usage of snorricam and handheld camera

Portrayal of surrealistic scenes

Frequent portrayal of talented and ambitious characters spending their youth alienated from the society and getting wasted in the prime of their lives in sex, drugs and alcohol (Paanch, Gulaal, Dev.D)


Personal Quotes
[June 2009 - When asked if he thinks that directors go too far to prove themselves different from others and go on to make the tale in a more complex way then it should and if he has been the victim of the same, given his movies being far too unconventional for his times] I just stay the way I am. To prove anything is not my thing.

[June 2009 - When asked which Hollywood movies he would remember for long time.] Taxi Driver (1976), Fight Club (1999), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Raging Bull (1980), Blood Simple. (1984), Pulp Fiction (1994).