Anurag Kashyap(L) and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.
Credit: PTI, @mohdzeeshanayyub/ Instagram
A celebrated director and a talented newcomer meet, they promise to work together but years go by until they team up as co-stars. Not many know that filmmaker Anurag Kashyap was so impressed by his Haddi co-star Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub's audition tape for No One Killed Jessica that he promised the actor to direct him in a full-fledged movie.
'It should have happened by now. It will happen soon. I have to have something worthy of him (Zeeshan). I don't want to cast him like how everyone does. There was a book once. We wanted to make that,' Kashyap told PTI when asked why he had not collaborated with Ayyub yet.
The actor, who also accompanied Kashyap and Haddi director Akshat Ajay Sharma, for the interview here, shared an interesting anecdote about their first meeting in 2010.
It was at the wrap party for No One Killed Jessica in Juhu, Mumbai. Ayyub said everyone he met had just one question: 'Did you meet Anurag?' A curious Ayyub ended up asking someone, 'Why, what happened?' and was told that the filmmaker was enquiring about him.
'So what had happened was that Anurag was making a short film and Anmol Ahuja (casting director) had shown him my No One Killed Jessica audition.
'When I was introduced to him he hugged me and went gaga. He (Kashyap) said, 'Yaar, you are such a great actor. You should wait, I will write something for you. Do your next with me',' Ayyub recalled.
The actor, who has established himself as one of the most formidable performers with roles in projects such as Raanjhanaa, Article 15, Raees, Tandav and Scoop, said Kashyap's words had made his day. "I was like now Anurag Kashyap is going to write something for me. He was the guy who inspired people like us to come to Mumbai. I have made it. This was 13 years ago and now we are sitting here,' he joked.
Kashyap said he has to write something that suits Ayyub's calibre.
'And this guy is also different. When you say this to an actor, that person will keep reminding you. He is not like that. He has self respect, he won't pester you, which, sometimes, is important,' the director said.
"And if I do a film with him, he will definitely not play an idealistic or moralistic guy in that," he added. Haddi, a revenge drama led by Nawazuddin Siddiqui's transgender character, features Ayyub as his love interest and Kashyap as the main antagonist.