Bollywood neo-noir crime drama Bombay Velvet was originally made for Ranveer Singh and not Rabir Kapoor, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap said in a recent interview. Kashyap added that the impact of the film’s box office failure strained his relationship with the lead actors.

In a recent interview with entertainment news website Screen, the 53-year-old director talked about his 2015 film, which also stars Anushka Sharma. He said that whenever the media asked about Bombay Velvet, Ranbir would get upset.

“I think Ranbir was very upset, and he keeps saying, ‘Why do you keep talking about Bombay Velvet? Just ignore it. The film didn’t work, it didn’t work, but you don’t have to talk about it all the time’. But people ask me questions all the time, how can I just ignore that,” Kashyap said.

The Gangs of Wasseypur director also revealed that he was hesitant to face Ranbir or Anushka after the film crashed at the box office. “We don’t meet often. Whenever we meet, we just hug and greet each other. And at the beginning, I just didn’t know how to face them because they had given me a lot of trust and love. And I was dealing with my own demons. So I needed to come out of that and make a very small film. I was very focused on Raman Raghav. But slowly, I think, we became distant,” he said.

Also, Anurag Kashyap revealed that originally the film was planned with Ranveer Singh in mind. However, the makers pushed for Ranbir Kapoor.

Kashyap said, “The film was not a high-budget film initially. It was sold at a very high budget, and it took me time to get around to that, and to the change of actor. Earlier, when I wrote it, it was for Ranveer Singh. He was much fresher then. But everybody sold it on the basis of Ranbir, and the actor changed. It took me at least a year to wrap my head around it.”

Also starring Karan Johar, Kay Kay Menon, Manish Choudhary, Vivaan Shah and Siddhartha Basu in key roles, Bombay Velvet tells the story of ambitious small-time boxer Johnny Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) and jazz singer Rosie (Anushka Sharma) in 1960s Bombay.

Based on historian Gyan Prakash’s book, Mumbai Fables, the story takes Johnny into the world of crime, giving his ambitions a headstart, but he must face the formidable challenges therein.

The film was a major box office flop, failing to recover its substantial budget. With a budget of around Rs 118 crore, it earned approximately Rs 43 crore worldwide.