Anurag Kashyap recalls how ex-wife Aarti had kicked him out of house for being alcoholic: 'I was depressed'

Did you know Anurag Kashyap was once a heavy drinker? He said he was once kicked out the house by his ex-wife Aarti Bajaj.

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap recently opened up about his past when he used to be a heavy drinker. He said things were so serious that once his ex-wife Aarti Bajaj kicked him out of their house while their daughter Aaliyah was around four years old. Anurag said he was depressed and struggled with his career, which caused him to depend on alcohol.

When Anurag Kashyap was alcoholic and depressed.

Anurag Kashyap started his career in films as a screenwriter until he made his directorial debut with Paanch. The film was never released due to censorship issues. Later, he directed Black Friday (2004), based on the namesake book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. The film release was held up till 2007 by the District Board of Film Certification due to a case. It received critical appreciation, followed by No Smoking (2007) which received negative reviews and flopped at the box office.

Anurag rose to fame after the commercial and critical success of Dev.D in 2009. Looking back at his bad phase in films, Anurag recently recalled the time when he resorted to alcohol to cope with the situation. He told Mashable India, “I locked myself in a room, and that’s when the drinking began. It was over. I used to drink heavily for a year-and-a-half. Aarti kicked me out of the house. My daughter (Aaliya) was only four years old then. That was a difficult phase. I was depressed.”

“Paanch had stalled, Black Friday had stalled, Allwyn Kalicharan was shelved, another film that nobody knows about was shelved, I was kicked out of Tere Naam (2003) and Kaante (2002). I was drinking and I was fighting all these battles. I was unceremoniously thrown out of projects I had written and I was a part of. That was a very bad phase, and it accumulated into anger, with the industry, with the system,” he added.

Anurag's last project was Dobaaraa, starring Taapsee Pannu. He is currently gearing up for the release of his next project, Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat featuring Alaya Fand Karan Mehta in lead roles. It also has Vicky Kaushal in a special cameo appearance. The film is scheduled to release in theatres on February 3, this year.