More than a decade ago, Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Deol had united for the pathbreaking Dev D (2009). While the audience wished for another brilliant collaboration between the duo, Deol and Kashyap only grew apart. In the latest edition of Sit with Hitlist (OG A-B of Bollywood Indie 21/01/2023), Deol, who is basking in the success of Netflix’s Trial by Fire, opened up about his falling-out with Kashyap, over the latter’s scathing words in a 2020 interview. The director had called working with the actor “a painfully difficult” experience. He had said that Deol wanted to do artistic movies but also wanted the mainstream benefits—the luxuries of being a “Deol”.

In the recent episode of Sit with Hitlist, Deol reacted to Kashyap’s allegations, saying, “[Kashyap] went in public, and told a lot of lies about me. One was that I demanded a [five-star] hotel room [during the shoot of Dev.D]. He had actually come up to me and said, ‘Listen, you can’t stay with us, you are a Deol. So, I want to put you up in a hotel room.’ He literally told me that. What he told the press was that I demanded it.”