Anurag Kashyap pictured in Mumbai.

New Delhi:

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, in an interview to NDTV’s Rohit Khilnani, elaborated on the tweets he recently posted about actress Kangana Ranaut, repeating that they used to be friends and that he tried to play peacemaker between Kangana and actress Taapsee Pannu. Mr Kashyap, who directed Taapsee in Manmarziyaan and produced Kangana’s Queen, has used his Twitter account to comment on the Kangana vs Taapsee-Swara Bhasker controversy that ignited over the weekend after Kangana called Taapsee and Swara “B-grade actresses” on national TV. Anurag Kashyap has taken Taapsee and Swara’s part, as have some other film fraternity members; in one tweet, he said he and Kangana Ranaut used to be friends but that he no longer knows “the new Kangana.”

Speaking to NDTV, Anurag Kashyap repeated that Kangana had been a “close friend.” The friendship appears to have soured after Mr Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu laughed at a query about Kangana Ranaut in an old interview while promoting Manmarziyaan in 2018. “Kangana was hurt by that,” said Anurag Kashyap, adding, “I am saying okay, if you are hurt by that, I will apologize for that. That’s what friends do. But she has gone on to a mode where ‘If are not with me you are my enemy’.”

On Monday, Anurag Kashyap tweeted in response to a query on why he wasn’t texting Kangana Ranaut that the last time he did so, “she put it on Twitter.” Speaking to NDTV, he explained that he had been trying to intervene in a spat between the actress and Taapsee Pannu. Mr Kashyap said, “Taapsee is also a friend and I said that two friends are there and why are they saying things to each other… I called her (Kangana) and asked her and she put the whole conversation on social media and I was just there like a friend trying to sort things out.”

Kangana Ranaut has never been on social media but her sister Rangoli Chandel was on Twitter until her account was suspended some time ago. Last year, Rangoli called Taapsee a “sasti copy” of Kangana for failing to single the actress out for praise in a tweet on the trailer of Kangana’s film Judgementall Hai Kya? Rangoli also turned on Anurag Kashyap, who told her she had “gone too far.” In one tweet, Rangoli revealed that Mr Kashyap had called Kangana and attempted to smooth things over – this is likely what Anurag Kashyap is referring to as ‘putting the whole conversation on social media.’

Over the weekend, Kangana Ranaut was invited onto a TV channel to speak on nepotism in the film industry and the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, allegedly by suicide. She called Taapsee Pannu and Swara Bhasker “needy outsiders” and “B-grade actresses” in this interview. In a second interview, she referred to the as “Swara Bhasker, Taapsee Pannu-type log” and described them as “chaploos” or sycophants. “It is all becoming so accusatory,” Anurag Kashyap told NDTV.

Watch the excerpt of Anurag Kashyap’s interview with NDTV here:

Kangana Ranaut, a three-time National Award-winner, and Swara Bhasker are co-stars from the Tanu Weds Manu films – on Tuesday, Swara responded to a tweet alleging that Kangana threw a tantrum after director Aanand L Rai praised Swara on the set of Tanu Weds Manu Returns.