When Anurag Kashyap rejected offer to write Kal Ho Naa Ho, offended Karan Johar, who ‘didn’t take the refusal too well’

Anurag Kashyap, who celebrated his 49th birthday on Friday, had once revealed that he was approached to write scripts for numerous big banners after the success of Satya. The 1998 film was directed by Ram Gopal Varma and starred Chakravarthy, Manoj Bajpayee and Urmila Matondkar in the lead roles.

In a 2007 interview, Anurag had revealed that several big producers, including Karan Johar, had approached him with offers, including Kal Ho Naa Ho.

“I too got the big offers after Satya. Karan Johar asked me to script Kal Ho Naa Ho, I was asked to write Tere Naam, Jism. I refused. I refused Kal Ho Naa Ho because Karan Johar is the king of romance and I’m a realist. I didn’t want to have problems after taking up a project. It wasn’t personal, but Karan didn’t take my refusal too well,” he said, speaking with Mumbai Mirror at the time. 

Karan ended up writing the script for Kal Ho Naa Ho himself. The film was directed by Nikkhil Advani. Anurag and Karan eventually teamed up with Dibakar Banerjee and Zoya Akhtar for Bombay Talkies, and Karan played a supporting role in Anurag’s Bombay Velvet. The film also starred Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. 

Also read: When Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap argued on Manmarziyaan sets: ‘Vicky Kaushal was calming me down’

Meanwhile, Anurag’s daughter Aaliyah Kashyap took to Instagram and shared a collage of photos to wish him on his birthday. “Happy birthdayyyy to the coolest old man I know, I love you and miss you papa,” she captioned the picture, shared on her Instagram Stories. 

His AK vs AK co-star Anil Kapoor also shared a picture from the Netflix film. In the picture, an angry Anil held Anurag by his collar. “Happy Birthday to the namesake ‘AK’ From the O.G AK!” he captioned the picture.