After writing a television serial, Kashyap got his major break as a co-writer in Ram Gopal Varma's crime drama Satya (1998) and made his directorial debut with Paanch, which never had a theatrical release due to censorship issues.

His next venture Dev.D (2009), a modern adaptation of Devdas received positive reviews and was a commercial success; followed by the socio-political drama Gulaal (2009), and the thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011).

The same year, he co-directed India's first Netflix Original series, the crime thriller Sacred Games, based on Vikram Chandra's novel of the same name and the romantic drama Manmarziyaan.

[4][5][6] His father Sri Prakash Singh is a retired Chief Engineer of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited and was posted in Obra Thermal Power Station in Sonbhadra district near Varanasi.

[10] She made her directorial debut with Doctor G (2022), a medical campus comedy, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Rakul Preet Singh, Shefali Shah and Sheeba Chaddha.

[14][17] Soon the money ran out, and he spent months on the streets, staying in lofts, "sleeping on beaches," "under a water tank and in the St Xavier's [college] boys hostel.

[20] Varma liked Kashyap's Auto Narayan and hired him, alongside Saurabh Shukla to write the script for his crime film, Satya (1998).

[25] While working with Nair, Kashyap came across files related to the Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders that took place in Pune in 1976, which became the inspiration for his directorial debut Paanch.

After a failed attempt to make Allwyn Kalicharan in 2003,[32] Kashyap started working on Black Friday, a film based on the namesake book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings.

[33][34] The Bombay high court put a stay on the release of the film, until the judgement in the bomb blasts case was delivered.

[45] Starring Abhay Deol who actually pitched the original idea of the film to Kashyap, with Mahie Gill and newcomer Kalki Koechlin portraying the characters of "Paro" and Chandramukhi respectively.

[63] The film with an ensemble cast, was a two-part crime saga centered on the coal mafia of Dhanbad with the story spanning from the early 1940s to 2009.

[68][69] In 2013, Kashyap directed That Day After Everyday, a 20-minute short film that was released on YouTube; starring Radhika Apte, Geetanjali Thapa and Sandhya Mridul.

[70] Speaking about the purpose of the project, Kashyap showed his intention to make people feel angry without offering a solution.

[71] The same year he teamed up with Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar to direct "Murabba", one of the four segments of anthology film Bombay Talkies.

"[101] His final directorial venture of the year was Manmarziyaan, a love triangle set in Punjab, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Tapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal.

[102][103] In December 2019, Kashyap launched the audio web-series titled Thriller Factory which he directed for Amazon's Audible Suno application.

Starring Saiyami Kher and Roshan Mathew, the film tells the story of a bank cashier who finds a stash of cash hidden in her kitchen sink.

[107] Dobaaraa met with mostly positive reviews with Tanul Thakur of The Wire writing: "A sharp adaptation, the film is deeper than it cares to admit and never slips into an instructional mode.

[114][115] Since then, he has produced a number of projects including Shaitan (2011), Chittagong (2012), Aiyyaa (2012), Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012) and Shorts (2013).

[122] He also served as the creative director in the Amitabh Bachchan starrer TV series Yudh (2014),[123] and subsequently presented two documentary film's, The World Before Her (2012) and Katiyabaaz (2014).

[124][125] In 2011 Kashyap co-founded his director-driven production company Phantom Films with partnership from Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena.

[135] In October the same year, Kashyap teamed up with Ridley Scott and Richie Mehta for Google, as the executive producer for the documentary India in a Day.

[138] After Kashyap filed a lawsuit against the board, the Mumbai High Court cleared the film for exhibition with a single scene cut.

[143] In 2020, Kashyap launched another production company titled Good Bad Films with partnership from Dhruv Jagasia and Akshay Thakker.

[155] His performance also garnered international attention with director Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu offering Kashyap a role in his upcoming project.

[168] He prefers shooting on real locations by employing guerrilla-filmmaking techniques with hidden cameras,[169] and often makes his actors improvise their dialogues on set.

[173][174] Film maker Zoya Akhtar wrote: "He has a very strong storytelling style and he proved that you could tell a great story with not a lot of money.

"[175] Actor Ranbir Kapoor said, "All his films may not be big money spinners but the impact Anurag has, his contribution to Indian cinema, is immense.

[176] The protagonists of his films often deal with excessive drug, smoke or alcohol consumption, personal guilt, extreme rage and arrogance which leads them into self-shattering situations.