Anurag Kashyap Brahmin remarks case: Court issues bailable warrant after repeated absence

A court in Surat has issued a bailable warrant against filmmaker Anurag Kashyap after he failed to appear in connection with a complaint over his alleged derogatory remarks about the Brahmin community on social media in April 2025.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate JV Chauhan passed the order on Monday and fixed December 24 as the next date of hearing. Kashyap, 54, had reportedly been issued multiple summonses, including one published in a newspaper, but did not appear before the court.

The development was confirmed by Kamlesh Raval, the lawyer who filed the complaint. He said the court had initially summoned the filmmaker and later directed that a public notice be published in a newspaper after he failed to respond. Even after the notice appeared in a prominent newspaper's Mumbai edition, Kashyap did not attend the proceedings, Raval said.

A bailable warrant allows a person against whom it has been issued to secure release by furnishing the bail amount or complying with the conditions specified by the court.

The case dates back to a social media exchange on April 16, 2025. The complaint alleges that Kashyap made objectionable comments about the Brahmin community while responding to criticism of his remarks. According to the petitioner, a user named Aaditya questioned the filmmaker's post, following which Kashyap allegedly responded by asking, “what have you achieved by being a Brahmin?”

Raval has argued that the comment insulted the community as a whole and had the potential to create hostility between different caste and religious groups. He also maintained that Kashyap's public profile as an actor, director and producer meant that his social media statements could influence a wide audience.

In May 2025, the court directed that a case be registered against the filmmaker under Sections 192, 352 and 352(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). These provisions relate to promoting enmity between groups, intentional insult with the intent to provoke a breach of peace, and circulating false rumours, respectively.

Raval, who serves as a legal adviser to Hindutva organisations Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, initiated the complaint. He had approached the court seeking action over the filmmaker's social media remarks.

The controversy began after the release of the trailer for the Hindi film Phule. Certain portions of the trailer drew objections from Akhil Bharatiya Brahmin Samaj and Vipra Sena. Kashyap's social media response to the criticism subsequently sparked a backlash.

Following the controversy, the filmmaker issued an apology to the Brahmin community. In a statement shared on Instagram in April 2025, he said he had used abusive language in anger while responding to another person's comment and acknowledged that he had crossed a line.

“I sincerely apologise to this community to whom I did not want to say this, but wrote it in anger while responding to someone’s cheap comment. I apologise to all my friends, my family and the (Brahmin) society for my way of speaking and for the abusive language,” Kashyap said.