Ajay Kashyap is a veteran director of 14 potboilers beginning with the Sanjay Dutt-Anita Raj starrers Jaan Ki Baazi in 1985.
Just why and how he decided to direct a film on the coalmines of Dhanbad just when Anurag Kashyap was in the midst of putting together the 6-hour 2-part film based on the mafia-like operations of the coalmines in Dhanbad Bihar, is anyone's guess.
To Anurag's dismay The Coal Mafia is being rush-released in May, a month ahead of Gangs Of Wasseypur.
Says an actor from Kashyap's film, "We were all horrified when we hear about this other Kashyap also doing a quickie on the coalmines of Dhanbad, and releasing it before our film.
Anurag wasn't aware of any such project until someone brought it to his notice. However the good news is that the only thing which the two directors share is the surname Kashyap.
That apart they belong to completely different schools of thought and creative sensibilities. "
While Ajay Kashyap the director of The Coal Mafia chose not to reply to questions on the suspicious likeness of his film to Anurag Kashyap's, an actor from The Coal Mafia spoke on condition of anonymity.
"It would be very unethical to say anything against the film before its release. All I can tell you at the moment is that the treatment of the theme of the coal mafia in Ajay Kashyap's film is strictly commercial.
Ajay is a good humanbeing But being a good humabeing and a good filmmaker are not the same thing. The Coal Mafia is plotted like a typical formula film.
However to say that the resemblances between the films of the two Kashyaps are purely coincidental would be naïve. The idea is to pre-empt Anurag's film on the same theme. "
Interestingly both the Kashyaps were denied permission to shoot on actual location in Dhanbad. In Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur Varanasi had to masquerade as Dhanbad. Anurag Kashyap shot his film on the Dhanbad coalmines in Varanasi. Ajay Kashyap had to recreate Dhanbad in the outskirts of Mumbai.
Anurag Kashyap chose to be ironical about the blatant hijacking of his film.
Said Anurag, "I am happy for him (Ajay Kashyap). His film is about the coal mafia. Coal is just a part of my film. He has made an epic whereas mine is just a simple film. All the best to him. "