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Filmmaker Hansal Mehta revealed that he was initially approached to direct Gangs of Wasseypur, and had even asked his old friend Manoj Bajpayee to star in the project before Anurag Kashyap got on board. Gangs of Wasseypur was released in two parts in 2012, and has become arguably the biggest cult classic of recent Indian cinema history. While Anurag admits to this day that the shadow of Gangs of Wasseypur looms large on his career, Hansal went on to experience his own set of ups and downs before bouncing back with the film Shahid, and then establishing himself in the streaming space.
In a chat with Mid-day, Hansal revealed that his only request to Anurag while handing over Gangs of Wasseypur to him was that he cast Manoj in it. At the time, however, the film wasn’t designed as a two-parter, and Manoj would have played the character Faisal Khan. He said, “Zeishan Quadri (write) came to me with that story, and we worked on it for a few months. I spoke to Manoj, who was doing nothing at the time. We had just started talking; we had broken up for several years. I spoke to Manoj, and I said, ‘Tu karega kya?‘ And he said, ‘Haan karte hain, main thoda paisa bhi laga leta hoon (Yes, let’s do it, I’ll put some money into it as well)’.”
But because Hansal couldn’t mount the budget, or find a producer, he agreed to let go of the project. “I had no idea how to go about it, because nobody trusted me… We started writing, and in the mean time, Zeishan went and met Anurag. Anurag called me and asked, ‘Sir, aap bana rahe ho toh main nahi banata hoon (If you’re really doing it, I’ll step away). But I didn’t have a producer; it was an impractical dream. I told him I have just one request, that he hire Manoj because I’d promised to take him in it.”
Hansal said that Anurag was the one who added the origin story element to the story, which meant a whole new chapter that wasn’t written initially. Manoj was originally supposed to play Faisal, the character that eventually went to Nawazuddin Siddiqui, with Manoj playing Sardar Khan, Faisal’s father.
Hansal’s son, Jai, assisted Anurag on Gangs of Wasseypur, and experience that Hansal described as ‘baptism by fire’ for Jai. Recalling an anecdote about Jai being shaken up after another assistant died during production, he said in an episode of Indian Express’ Creator x Creator series, “Anurag said, ‘Sir, if you call him back, he will remain a boy, if you let him stay here he will become a man.’ He just said, ‘Sambhal lege, hum sab hai na yaha pe.’ It was a tough moment for me as a father because (Jai was) constantly calling me and telling me (he) wanted to come back, and I started avoiding (him),” Hansal said.
In addition to re-launching Manoj’s career and turning Nawazuddin Siddiqui into an overnight star, Gangs of Wasseypur introduced the industry and the audience to talented actors such as Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi, Richa Chadha and others. Manoj and Hansal went on to collaborate shortly afterwards on the acclaimed film Aligarh.
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