Abhay Deol calls Anurag Kashyap 'gaslighter' after filmmaker claimed he is 'painfully difficult' to work with

Actor Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap worked together in 2009 film Dev D, which also became a milestone in the actor's career. Earlier, the director said in a statement bthat the actor was “painfully difficult” to work with. Now, Abhay in a new interview called the director a “gaslighter”. After Dev D, the actor and director never collaborated again and looks like, they do need to address the elephant in the room.

Abhay’s statement comes after he had said in an interview that he didn’t like marketing himself when he had started out as he wanted the films to speak for itself. However, he mentioned (without taking any specific names) that certain filmmakers and producers didn’t approve and he was in fact, ‘gaslit’ into thinking that didn’t care enough for the film.

During the rapid fire round in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, he had to give a t-shirt with descriptive word to celebrities. While he praised Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan, when it came to Anurag Kashyap, he described him as a ‘gaslighter’.

“Everything comes with its pros and cons. Where I come from, I know I have been gaslit for who I am. You call in a lot of aggression to you because you’re doing something and managing to get away with that. And a lot of people want to be able to do that and they can’t. So they project on you. Sometimes, that ignorance can come across as arrogance and I know it has a few times,” he had told Hindustan Times.

In 2020, Anurag opened up about Abhay and mentioned how it is ‘painfully difficult’ to work with him. In an interview with HuffPost India, he had said, “It was painfully difficult to work with him. I don’t really have great working memories with him. And haven’t talked to him much since I finished shooting.”

“He wanted to do artistic movies but also wanted the mainstream benefits. The benefits and luxuries of being a ‘Deol’. He would stay in a five-star hotel while the entire crew stayed in Paharganj for a film that was made on a very tight budget. Also the reason a lot of his directors went away from him," he added.