Anurag Kashyap says Bombay Velvet failure distanced him from Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka: ‘Didn’t know how to face them'

ADecennium agone, filmmaker and worker Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay velvety failed miserably at the package office despite starring Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. Following this, Anurag vowed never to make a film with stars again, and in a recent interview with Screen, he also revealed how the film’s failure impacted his relationship with Ranbir and Anushka.Anurag Kashyap says Ranbir Kapoor gets upset when he talks about Bombay VelvetAnurag revealed that Ranbir gets upset whenever he talks about Bombay Velvet and said, “I think Ranbir was very upset, and he keeps saying, ‘Why do you keep talking about Bombay Velvet? Just ignore it. The film didn’t work, it didn’t work, but you don’t have to talk about it all the time.’ But people ask me questions all the time — how can I just ignore that?”He also recalled his hesitation in facing Ranbir and Anushka after the film’s failure and admitted to becoming distant from them. He said, “We don’t meet often. Whenever we meet, we just hug and greet each other. And at the beginning, I just didn’t know how to face them because they had given me a lot of trust and love. And I was dealing with my own demons. So I needed to come out of that and make a very small film. I was very focused on Raman Raghav. But slowly, I think, we became distant.”The filmmaker revealed that the debacle was such that when they conducted research, they realised a shocking thing — people didn’t like Ranbir’s hair. Calling it the most absurd reason, Anurag said that curling Ranbir’s hair for the film was a conscious choice they had made.About Bombay VelvetThe neo-noir period crime film was based on historian Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables. It featured Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar in lead roles, with Kay Kay Menon, Manish Choudhary, Vivaan Shah and Siddhartha Basu in supporting roles. According to Sacnilk, made on a budget of ₹115 crore, the film collected only ₹43 crore worldwide and ₹23.71 crore at the domestic box office.Anurag Kashyap’s upcoming movieAnurag will be seen in Dacoit. Helmed by Shaneil Deo, the film also stars Adivi Sesh, Mrunal Thakur, Prakash Raj, Atul Kulkarni and Zayn Marie Khan, among others, in key roles. The film is scheduled to release in theatres in March 2026.While Anushka has been away from films for a long time, Ranbir has two releases lined up in 2026 — Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War alongside Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal, and Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana alongside Sai Pallavi and Yash.