Anurag Kashyap Reveals Why Ranbir Kapoor Replaced Ranveer Singh In Bombay Velvet
Updated on: 04 November, 2025 03:47 PM IST |Shweta Shah
Why Ranbir Kapoor replaced Ranveer Singh in Bombay Velvet?
For years, Anurag Kashyap has openly spoken about how it has been a struggle for him to make big-budget films. And when he made one, it turned out to be a complete disaster. We`re talking about Bombay Velvet. But did you know Ranbir Kapoor wasn`t the first choice for the film?
The filmmaker revealed that his original pick was Ranveer Singh. He envisioned the project to be on a much smaller scale. However, as the studios stepped in, so did the demand for bringing in a bigger, more reliable star.
Anurag Kashyap on the Bombay Velvet cast and failure
Speaking candidly on the Game Changers podcast, Kashyap explained that Bombay Velvet was never meant to be a massive 90 crore project. The budget spiral destroyed the creative freedom.
“The original budget was quite low. But as soon as the studio entered, I got surrounded by ambition. The budget went from Rs 28 crore to Rs 90 crore," he said.
Also Read: Vivek Agnihotri Says Anurag Kashyap Was Hard to Work With; Kashyap Responds
He shared how a sudden scale in the budget changed everything, including the way the team operated. “Suddenly, we went from rickshaws to Mercedes for going to set. Suddenly, a resort was made in Sri Lanka near the set," he added.
Kashyap further revealed that when big monies came into play, the budget went “three times of that should reflect on the screen." However, things took a different turn for Bombay Velvet.
The Manmazriyaan director also confessed that Ranveer Singh, who was the original choice for the film, was signed early on for the project. However, the industry wasn`t convinced about his star power back then.
“Nobody had faith in him. Big directors like these used to call him ‘treadmill’ because he had so much energy," adding how Ranbir Kapoor was then brought into play, saying, “They said they don’t know how he’d fare out, but this (Ranbir) is better."
Today, Anurag Kashyap believes that if the budget were tighter, Bombay Velvet probably could`ve had a different result. The film went on to become the filmmaker`s biggest flop of the career.
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