India, April 19 -- Filmmaker-actor Anurag Kashyap says that being repeatedly cast in similar roles prompted him to step away from acting for a brief period, as he looked to avoid being boxed into a fixed screen image.

The 53-year-old, who recently made his Telugu debut with Dacoit which stars actors Adivi Sesh and Mrunal Thakur, says the decision came after he noticed a pattern in the kind of roles being offered to him.

"People tend to see you in a certain way, and you keep getting similar roles," Kashyap says, adding that over time, the offers felt like "different versions of the same character".

"It's not about whether those roles are good or bad, but that they don't challenge you anymore," he explains.

Kashyap says this creative st...