‘Can we make it Money Heist of India?’: Anurag Kashyap shares how Netflix reacted to a pilot of a show he wrote

Anurag Kashyap shared that his adaptation of Suketu Mehta's Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found was shelved and he was offered mediocre scripts.

Director and screenwriter Anurag Kashyap has opened up about facing personal health issues after his adaptation of Suketu Mehta’s 2004 book Maximum City was shelved by Netflix India. Anurag was instead pitched to turn a show into the Money Heist of India, which also took him by shock. (Also read: Anurag Kashyap says special effects work in Nishaanchi is ‘better’ than Sinners)

Anurag Kashyap shared how he had to seek therapy after his hardwork on a 900-page script was stuck.

What Anurag said

During an interaction with The Hollywood Reporter India, Anurag began, “I write handwritten scripts. For me to go on and nobody telling me it's not happening was even more triggering. And then, to compensate, they were sending me mediocre writing and shows. When I said it’s mediocre and I need time, they said, ‘No, but we have the actors’ dates in four months.’ I said no, I can’t do it. If you want me to do it, I’ll do it but I need time. There was another show, for which I wrote the pilot. They loved it and they said it is so good. Then suddenly one day they came and they said, ‘Can we make it Money Heist of India?’ I was like how do you guys think? I made a choice to leave.”

‘In that grieving, I had a heart attack’

He went on to add, “I was grieving and I went to therapy. When you invest so much time, it becomes your baby. So it was a miscarriage. In that grieving, I had a heart attack. I was on blood thinners, and then vaccine reacted. I got asthma, so I was on steroids. My mind was buzzing, and then I started drinking and ordering from Zomato all the time during the second lockdown. I was not eating any healthy food. I put on 35 kilos in 8 months. My drinking got really bad and my daughter was very worried.”

Money Heist emerged as a massive global hit, becoming one of Netflix's most-watched non-English-language series ever after its 2017 release. A spin-off series, Berlin, premiered on December 29, 2023, and a second season is scheduled to premiere in May 2026.

Meanwhile, Anurag is gearing up for the release of Kennedy. The crime thriller hits Zee5 on February 20. It stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone.