Anurag Kashyap was sexually abused as a child!

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai: Not many people know the fact that Anurag Kashyap had a dreadful past, as the prodigious director was physically and mentally tortured as a child!Recently, while filming for Onir’s ‘My Name Is Abhimanyu’, the ace director broke down while portraying a child abuser. For Kashyap, it was a blast from the past, something that revived bitter memories as he acknowledges the fact that it was the hardest thing he had ever done. Talking to a news daily, an emotionally charged Kashyap said, “And not only because I’ve been a victim of child abuse for 11 long years but because the child whom I had to abuse on screen was blissfully innocent and oblivious of what I was doing. By entering the mind of a child abuser, I realised what I had been through as a child.” While speaking on the toughest part in the film, Kashyap, who plays a step-dad in the flick was that bathing the young boy as, “The child actor doesn’t have a father in real life. He was completely taken up by the act of his screen father, me, bathing him. After the shot, he ran to his mother to ask why he didn’t have a father to bathe him in this way. That’s when I realised how easy and how sinful it is for a man to sexually abuse a child. A simple routine exercise like a father bathing a child could be entirely stripped of its innocence by the man perpetrating the act.” When enquired why did Kashyap chose to play the child abuser, the director said, “No actor was willing to play the child abuser. Having gone through the ordeal for 11 years, I realised it was very important for the victim and for the attacker to be played properly. I hated myself for playing the perpetrator of such a crime. But someone had to do the job or the story would remain untold.” On a personal note, Anurag has forgiven his perpetrator as, “I met him after many years. He wasn’t some dirty old man. He was 22 when he abused me. He was guilt-ridden when we met. I decided to put the whole nightmare behind me and move on. But it wasn’t easy. I came to Mumbai brimming with angst, bitterness and a sense of violation and isolation. Thanks to the love of my life, Kalki Koechlin, I am completely cured of my acrimony.”