Ten years after Bombay Velvet collapsed at the box office, the film continues to cast a long shadow — not just over Anurag Kashyap’s career choices, but also over his personal equations with its stars, Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.
In a recent conversation, the filmmaker looked back at the aftermath of the ambitious but ill-fated 2015 release and admitted that the failure quietly changed several relationships in his life.
“Ranbir gets upset when I bring it up”
Kashyap revealed that Ranbir Kapoor isn’t comfortable revisiting Bombay Velvet at all. According to him, the actor often tells him to stop talking about the film and move on. But for Kashyap, that hasn’t been easy.
He explained that questions about the film keep coming up, making it impossible to simply erase it from conversations. While Ranbir prefers silence, Kashyap feels the film’s failure remains an unavoidable chapter of his journey.
Distance that followed the failure
The director also spoke candidly about how awkward things became after the film tanked. He admitted that, for a long time, he didn’t know how to face Ranbir or Anushka.
They had trusted him completely, he said, and the weight of that responsibility — combined with the film’s disastrous outcome — pushed him into a difficult mental space. During that phase, Kashyap chose to retreat, focusing on smaller, darker projects like Raman Raghav 2.0 as a way to recover creatively.
Over time, the closeness faded. Today, their interactions are warm but brief — a hug, a greeting, and little more. The bond, he acknowledged, was never quite the same again.
The “hair” theory that shocked everyone
One of the most surprising revelations was what post-release research reportedly showed. Kashyap claimed that audience feedback pointed to something almost absurd — Ranbir Kapoor’s hairstyle.
He said viewers disliked Ranbir’s curled hair in the film, despite it being a deliberate stylistic decision tied to the character and the era. For Kashyap, it symbolised how unpredictable audience reactions can be, especially when a film is already struggling.
A costly experiment
Bombay Velvet, based on Gyan Prakash’s Mumbai Fables, was envisioned as a neo-noir epic set in post-Independence Bombay. Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, and Karan Johar, the film aimed high but fell painfully short.
Made on an estimated ₹115 crore budget, the film reportedly earned only ₹43 crore worldwide, with under ₹24 crore coming from India — a result that firmly placed it among Bollywood’s most high-profile failures.
Where everyone is now
Kashyap has since distanced himself from star-driven projects, a decision he has openly attributed to Bombay Velvet. He will next be seen as an actor in Dacoit, scheduled for a March 2026 release.
Anushka Sharma has remained away from films, focusing on her personal life, while Ranbir Kapoor has a packed 2026 ahead — including Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War and Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana.
Final words
A decade later, Bombay Velvet is no longer just a failed film — it’s a turning point. For Anurag Kashyap, it reshaped creative priorities, altered friendships, and became a reminder of how deeply cinema failures can cut. Some films fade with time. Others linger — quietly, uncomfortably — long after the lights go out.
