Of course the going wasn’t easy from there on. The release of Paanch, Kashyap’s debut movie got delayed and subsequently Gulaal ran in to trouble over finding a financier. “This would have been Anurag’s second movie, but no producer seemed willing to take the risk,” he says. But thankfully, Chaudhary had made a firm friend in Kashyap who made sure he used the interim time creatively. “He sent me for numerous acting workshops, taught me the basics of direction and let me assist him in Black Friday. I ended up co-writing the script of No Smoking too. In fact, when Gulaal finally took off he got feelers from various big stars that they would like to act in it, but he kept his faith in me,” says the soft-spoken young man.

Meanwhile, offers for Chaudhary from other producers have started coming in. Chaudhary has already signed on the dotted lines for Sushil Rajpal’s film Mehmaanjee, due for an April release, besides Waiting Room and Meridien Lines opposite Soha Ali Khan. “I would love to do films which blend the commercial with the artistic, but right now I am hardly in a position to dictate terms. It all depends on how this film does,” he says. Clearly, switching careers is no longer an option.