After the de Sica experience, Kashyap arrived in
Mumbai in 1993 with
INR 5,000 in his pocket. Soon the money ran out, and he spent months on the streets, staying in lofts, "sleeping on beaches," "under a water tank and in the St. Xavier's College, Mumbai|St Xavier's [college] boys hostel." and episodes of the TV series
Kabhie Kabhie (1997). In 1998, actor
Manoj Bajpayee suggested his name to
Ram Gopal Varma to write a film. Varma liked Kashyap's
Auto Narayan and hired him, alongside
Saurabh Shukla to write the script for his crime film,
Satya (1998). and is regarded as one of the best films of Indian cinema. He later collaborated with Varma in scripting
Kaun (1999) and writing dialogues for
Shool (1999). In 1999, he made a short film, titled
Last Train to Mahakali for television.
2000–2009 While working with Nair, Kashyap came across files related to the
Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders that took place in
Pune in 1976, which became the inspiration for his directorial debut
Paanch. A
crime thriller about a group of five friends of a rock band who turn into criminals. The film faced trouble with the
Central Board of Film Certification because the board felt that it dealt unapologetically with sex, drugs and celebrated violence. It was cleared by the Board in 2001, but remains unreleased due to some problems faced by the producer. Kashyap started working on
Black Friday, a film based on the
namesake book by
Hussain Zaidi about the
1993 Bombay bombings. The Bombay high court put a stay on the release of the film, until the judgement in the bomb blasts case was delivered. It was decided after a petition filed by a group of 1993 bomb blasts accused, challenging the release of the film based on their case. The film got censorship clearance in 2007, and was released after two years meeting universal acclaim.
Nikhat Kazmi gave the film a three star out of five rating and mentioned: "It was indeed a difficult film to make, yet the director has managed to grapple with all the loose threads and put them together in a composite whole. So much so, the film moves like a taut thriller, without ideology coloring the sepia frames." in 2007 The same year, Kashyap adapted
Stephen King's short story "
Quitters, Inc." into
No Smoking. A
surrealistic thriller about a
chain-smoker who gets trapped in the maze of a person who guarantees will make him quit smoking. The film starring
John Abraham,
Ayesha Takia,
Ranvir Shorey and
Paresh Rawal in the leads with music by
Vishal Bhardwaj, premiered at the
Rome Film Festival.
No Smoking received an overwhelming negative reception and failed at the box-office. CNN-IBN's
Rajeev Masand called it a "colossal disappointment". His final release of the year was
Return of Hanuman, an animation film about adventures of the Hindu god
Hanuman. In 2009, Kashyap had two releases.
Dev.D, a contemporary takes on
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel
Devdas. It was the twelfth film adaptation of the Bengali novel. Starring
Abhay Deol who actually pitched the original idea of the film to Kashyap, with
Mahie Gill and newcomer
Kalki Koechlin portraying the characters of "Paro" and
Chandramukhi respectively. The film met with generally positive reviews and strong box office results.
Gulaal, a political drama, was his final release of that year. Kashyap started working on the film in 2005 and had finished 70–80 per cent of the film in 2006, when its producer fell ill. Later on, Zee Motion Pictures took over the project and was finally finished in 2008 and released on 13 March 2009.
Anupama Chopra gave the film three stars and referred to Kashyap as "the Anti-
Yash Chopra". Despite positive reviews, the film underperformed at the box office.
2010s Mumbai Cutting (2010), an
anthology film, was his next directorial venture. It consisted of eleven short films made by eleven directors. He directed one of the short films. It premiered at the 2008
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. '', 2010. In 2011, Kashyap directed
That Girl in Yellow Boots, a thriller starring
Kalki Koechlin who also co-wrote the film with him. The film was screened at many festivals including
2010 Toronto International Film Festival,
67th Venice International Film Festival,
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and the
London Indian Film Festival. Shot in thirteen days, the film was released in September 2011.
Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 out of 4 stars, praising the character-driven film and the portrayal of its lead alongside the city compared to most Hindi films: " a film like this provides a radically different view of India than you can find in the pleasures and excesses of Bollywood". In 2012, Kashyap came up with his ambitious directorial venture
Gangs of Wasseypur, which screened at the 2012
Cannes Directors' Fortnight,
London Indian Film Festival,
Toronto film festival and the
Sundance Film Festival in 2013. The film with an ensemble cast, was a two-part crime saga centered on the
coal mafia of Dhanbad with the story spanning from the early 1940s to 2009. The first part was released on 22 June, and the second on 8 August 2012, both receiving appreciation from Indian and international critics alike. The combined budget of the two films allowed it to be a box-office success. In 2013, Kashyap directed
That Day After Everyday, a 20-minute short film that was released on
YouTube; starring
Radhika Apte,
Geetanjali Thapa and
Sandhya Mridul. It showed the story of three working women facing troubles every day, both inside and outside their houses and how they overcome them. Dealing with issues like
eve teasing and public molestation, the video got four lakh hits in two days. Speaking about the purpose of the project, Kashyap showed his intention to make people feel angry without offering a solution. The same year he teamed up with
Dibakar Banerjee,
Zoya Akhtar and
Karan Johar to direct "Murabba", one of the four segments of anthology film
Bombay Talkies. It was made to celebrate the 100 years of Indian cinema, and was screened at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film did not perform well at the box office, but was well received by critics. His next film was
Ugly (2014), a thriller about the kidnapping of a struggling actor's daughter, and the events followed by it. It was screened in the
Directors' Fortnight section at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival, receiving a
standing ovation. The film's theatrical release was halted for over a year regarding censorship issues over depiction of smoking in it. Though it was released on 26 December 2014 to generally positive reviews. Kashyap's next release was
Bombay Velvet (2015), a
period film set in Bombay in the 1960s, based on
Princeton University Historian
Gyan Prakash's book
Mumbai Fables. It stars
Ranbir Kapoor,
Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar. The film was co-edited by the
Academy Award winner editor
Thelma Schoonmaker, who is known for her collaboration with
Martin Scorsese. Released on 15 May 2015, some critics appreciated its retro-look, performances, styling and music, but criticized its faltered storytelling. It also emerged as a box-office failure.
Bombay Velvet was Kashyap's dream project and its failure was a huge disappointment to him. In an interview with critic
Rajeev Masand, Kashyap stated that at one point he wanted to leave India because he felt that people here did not understand his films but then realized that he did not manage the budget of the film. A die-hard comics enthusiast, Anurag Kashyap once reached out to
Raj Comics—one of India’s biggest comic book companies—to acquire the rights to their gritty vigilante character Doga, envisioning what could have been India’s first proper superhero film with a distinctly dark, grounded tone. After detailed discussions, he successfully secured the rights and began developing the project, positioning it as a major cinematic leap post Bombay Velvet. However, the scale of a superhero film demanded a massive budget, making the entire fate of
Doga heavily dependent on the box office performance of
Bombay Velvet—if it succeeded, the film would greenlight Kashyap’s ambitious vision. Unfortunately, the film failed miserably at the box office, collapsing under its own expectations, and with that financial blow, the
Doga project fell apart, quietly slipping into development hell and leaving behind a fascinating “what could have been” moment in Indian cinema history. In 2016, Kashyap co-wrote and directed
Raman Raghav 2.0, a thriller inspired by the notorious serial killer
Raman Raghav. It starred
Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the title character along with
Vicky Kaushal. The film premiered at the 2016
Sydney Film Festival and the
2016 Cannes Film Festival, in the Director's Fortnight section to a positive response. After working on
Raman Raghav 2.0, Kashyap received a script from Vineet Kumar Singh of
Mukkabaaz. He did not like the initial script but was excited by a "10-minute chunk" that he had not come across before. He then rewrote the script with his team having the 10-minute as a base. The film was screened at
2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the
Mumbai Film Festival and was released theatrically on 12 January 2018. Saibal Chatterjee of
NDTV called it "one of the more important films to have come out of the Mumbai movie industry in recent times." In 2018, Kashyap again collaborated with Banerjee, Akhtar and Johar for the anthology film
Lust Stories. Based on the theme of lust, it had stories told from the female perspective. Kashyap's story had
Radhika Apte and Akash Thosar. The film was released on
Netflix on 15 June 2018. It was followed by India's first
Netflix Original series, the crime thriller
Sacred Games, based on
Vikram Chandra's
novel of the same name. Kashyap co-directed the series with
Vikramaditya Motwane. The show received critical acclaim, with Lincoln Michel of
GQ calling it the "best Netflix original in years." His final directorial venture of the year was
Manmarziyaan, a love triangle set in
Punjab, starring
Abhishek Bachchan,
Tapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal. Written by
Kanika Dhillon, the film was premiered at the
2018 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in India on 16 September to positive reviews. In December 2019, Kashyap launched the audio web-series titled
Thriller Factory which he directed for
Amazon's Audible Suno application. It features voices of
Tabu and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
2020s The next year, Kashyap reunited with his
Lust Stories team to direct the horror anthology film
Ghost Stories. His story was about a pregnant woman going through anxiety. It was released on Netflix on 1 January 2020. He continued his association with Netflix and released his directorial venture
Choked (2020) on the same. Starring
Saiyami Kher and
Roshan Mathew, the film tells the story of a bank cashier who finds a stash of cash hidden in her kitchen sink. In 2022, Kashyap directed the science fiction thriller
Dobaaraa. The film is an official remake of the 2018 Spanish film
Mirage; it opened at the
London Indian Film Festival and was released theatrically on 19 August 2022.
Dobaaraa met with mostly positive reviews with Tanul Thakur of
The Wire writing: "A sharp adaptation, the film is deeper than it cares to admit and never slips into an instructional mode." Just months after releasing
Dobaara, Kashyap released another directorial venture titled
Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat. The musical romantic drama starred
Alaya F and debutant Karan Mehta. It had its world premiere at the 2022
Marrakech International Film Festival and the film was released theatrically on 3 February 2023. In 2023, Kashyap wrote and directed the thriller film
Kennedy. He initially wanted to cast
Vikram and had named the film after Vikram's real name. However, they could not work together because of some miscommunication. The role eventually went to
Rahul Bhat;
Sunny Leone also appears in a pivotal role. The film had its world premiere at the
2023 Cannes Film Festival. His next directorial venture,
Bandar, starring
Bobby Deol and
Sanya Malhotra in pivotal roles, is set to premiere at the
2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Producer Kashyap found his production company
Anurag Kashyap Films in 2009, which is managed by
Guneet Monga. The companies' first film was the critical hit
Udaan (2010), which was screened in the
Un Certain Regard category at the
2010 Cannes Film Festival. Since then, he has produced a number of projects including
Shaitan (2011),
Chittagong (2012),
Aiyyaa (2012),
Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012) and
Shorts (2013). He has also co-produced a number of films that have gone on to film festivals, but are yet to release theatrically, including
Michael,
Peddlers and
Monsoon Shootout. In 2012, Kashyap produced
The Last Act, India's first collaborative feature film from twelve directors to make ten-minute short films, with each film being a part of a larger story written by him. In 2013, his company co-produced the critically acclaimed drama
The Lunchbox, which was nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language; along with the biographical drama
Shahid. The same year Kashyap, with
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures co-produced five short films with the theme of 'India is Visual Journey'. The short films were
Moi Marjaani,
Chai,
Hidden Cricket,
Geek Out and
The Epiphany. He also served as the
creative director in the
Amitabh Bachchan starrer TV series
Yudh (2014), and subsequently presented two
documentary film's,
The World Before Her (2012) and
Katiyabaaz (2014). In 2011 Kashyap co-founded his director-driven production company
Phantom Films with partnership from
Vikas Bahl,
Vikramaditya Motwane and
Madhu Mantena. The companies first film was the period romance
Lootera (2013), starring
Ranveer Singh and
Sonakshi Sinha. Based
O. Henry's short story,
The Last Leaf, the film was critically acclaimed. He then went on to collaborate with Karan Johar's
Dharma Productions to produce the romantic comedy
Hasee Toh Phasee (2014). The film starring
Parineeti Chopra and
Sidharth Malhotra was directed by the debutant
Vinil Mathew. Kashyap then co-edited and co-produced the comedy drama
Queen, starring
Kangana Ranaut. The film was a critical and commercial success, it also won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. In 2015, Kashyap co-produced Anushka Sharma's production debut
NH10, and the sex comedy
Hunterrr. Both films proved to be successes.
Masaan, was Phantom's fourth release of the year. The film won the
FIPRESCI Award and the Promising Future award at the
2015 Cannes Film Festival. The final release of Phantom of 2015 was
Shaandaar, which proved to be a box-office flop. In October the same year, Kashyap teamed up with
Ridley Scott and
Richie Mehta for
Google, as the executive producer for the documentary
India in a Day. The project was for people across India to film a snapshot of their day and upload it on Google's official website. The following year, Kashyap collaborated again with Ekta Kapoor to produce
Udta Punjab (2016), a crime drama by the director
Abhishek Chaubey that documents the
substance abuse endemic in the Indian state of
Punjab.
Udta Punjab generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification demanded extensive
censorship before its theatrical release, citing that the portrayal of Punjab in it was negative. After Kashyap filed a lawsuit against the board, the
Mumbai High Court cleared the film for exhibition with a single scene cut. His company, Phantom Films, also produced a
Gujarati film Wrong Side Raju, that same year. Kashyap co-produced
Haraamkhor (2017), the survival drama
Trapped (2016) and the superhero film
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018). Phantom Films was dissolved in October 2018, largely in response to the sexual assault allegation on Vikas Bahl by a former Phantom employee, which was reported in 2015. Kashyap, and the other three founders issued statements on Twitter confirming the company's disbanding and moving on to independent projects. In 2020, Kashyap launched another production company titled Good Bad Films with partnership from Dhruv Jagasia and Akshay Thakker. Their maiden production was
Choked. Actor Kashyap has made cameo appearances in his films and those of others, including
Black Friday,
No Smoking (2007 film),
Tera Kya Hoga Johnny (2008),
Luck by Chance (2009),
Dev.D,
Gulaal,
Soundtrack (2011),
Trishna (2011),
Bhoothnath Returns (2014),
Happy New Year (2014) and
I Am (2010), playing a
child abuser. The same year, he played a police officer in the short film
Encounter (2010), co-starring
Nimrat Kaur. In 2011, he playing the full-fledged role of the antagonist Bunty Bhaiya in
Tigmanshu Dhulia's crime thriller
Shagird (2011). In 2016, Kashyap starred in
AR Murugadoss's
Akira, starring
Sonakshi Sinha; where he played the role of a corrupt police officer. In 2017, he acted in the short film titled
Chhuri, alongside
Tisca Chopra and Surveen Chawla. He also played the role of the antagonist in the Tamil-language thriller
Imaikkaa Nodigal (2018) directed by
R. Ajay Gnanamuthu. In 2020, Kashyap played an exaggerated version of himself in
AK vs AK directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, opposite
Anil Kapoor. He also wrote the dialogues and served as one of the executive producers. In 2024, Kashyap played the role of villain Kazbe in
Disney+ Hotstar's
Bad Cop (TV series). In June 2024, Kashyap starred as Selvam in the Tamil movie
Maharaja alongside
Vijay Sethupathi. He received widespread critical acclaim for essaying a layered negative role. His performance also garnered international attention with director
Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu offering Kashyap a role in his upcoming project. ==Personal life==