Anurag Kashyap accuses Viacom and Colors of 'insider trading': Gangs of Wasseypur is loss-making film for them

Anurag Kashyap revealed that he is not making a sequel to Gangs of Wasseypur because it is considered a loss-making film.

Anurag Kashyap has shared that the Gangs of Wasseypur films, touted as one of the best works of his filmmaking career, are considered loss-making films by their distributors. Both parts of Gangs of Wasseypur were originally shot as a single film measuring a total of 321 minutes, but were split into two parts for the Indian market. Viacom 18 Motion Pictures served as the distributor for the films before they sold them to Colors TV, a company they own.

Anurag Kashyap shared that Gangs of Wasseypur is considered a flop by its distributors.

In a recent interview, Anurag shared the reason why he has not tried to make a sequel to Gangs of Wasseypur. The filmmaker said that while he has many stories for a sequel, he won't make it as Viacom 18 continues to call it a loss-making film.

He told Tanmay Bhatt, "There are many stories but I am angry about something there. For Viacom (distributors Viacom 18 Motion Pictures), it is still a loss-making film for Viacom. I used goodwill of my entire lifetime in that picture, but that holds no value. And we know how much the film has earned. But then they say we have not earned that money, Colors has earned it. But then who owns Colors? Viacom sold the film to their own company Colors and said Colors is earning the money. This is a case of insider trading."

The director also said that he feels the ensemble cast in Gangs of Wasseypur did not get paid enough money for their work. He said, "No actor in that film earned good money. Richa Chadha got 2 lakh, Huma Qureshi got 75,000, and someone else got 50,000. People got those kinds of money. You got a good movie in less money, but when it made money then you should pay people for it."

Apart from Richa and Huma, Gangs of Wasseypur also starred Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Reema Sen, Piyush Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vineet Kumar Singh, Anurita Jha, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vipin Sharma, Jameel Khan, and Yashpal Sharma among others. Both parts of the film were released in 2012.