AK vs AK

The film starts from the camera of an aspiring filmmaker, Yogita, who is filming Anurag Kashyap for a documentary.[lower-alpha 2] Kashyap and Anil Kapoor are interviewed by Sucharita Tyagi for a MAMI event. After an audience member asks if the director or the actor is more important, they start arguing about the question and insulting each other's careers, eventually culminating in Kashyap throwing a glass of water in Kapoor's face. This becomes a major scandal for Kashyap and causes other film personalities to cut ties with him and back out of his projects. As he sits in his bedroom enraged, Yogita says that she has an idea.

Later, on Christmas Eve and Kapoor's birthday, Kashyap goes to his set along with Yogita and tries to pitch him a new story about a mad director who kidnaps the daughter of an aging actor, who has to find her. Kapoor is initially uninterested, but realises that his daughter, Sonam, has actually been abducted by Kashyap, who wants to capture his real actions and emotions as he searches for her. Kashyap tells him that he has ten hours (until sunrise the next day) to find her and sets three rules: he can't get the police or anyone else involved, all his phone calls must be on speakerphone, and that Yogita's camera must stay on.

Kapoor first tries going to the police, but Kashyap and Yogita catch up and convince them it is just a rehearsal for their film. Kapoor is still somewhat unconvinced that Sonam was actually kidnapped, so Kashyap shows a live feed of her being held by a masked man with a knife. After talking to his son Harshvardhan, Kapoor finds out through her driver that she was last seen at the hotel Crescent. At the hotel, he bribes the manager with an endorsement to see the CCTV footage, and spots the getaway driver's face. He searches for him on the streets of Mumbai with little success. Kapoor goes home and stealthily texts Harshvardhan the truth, but his confused reaction alerts Kashyap and causes him to confront Kapoor upstairs. As they exchange blows, the masked man cuts Sonam's finger off, so Kapoor relents. Eventually, someone directs him to a Christmas celebration to find the driver, named Javed. Kapoor finds him through the camera's viewfinder and chases him through and around Mumbai Central, losing him when he gets hit by a car. A bloodied Kapoor breaks down in front of the camera, regretting not making time for his family and begging Yogita for any information. Kashyap, having lost them earlier due to his asthma, finally arrives to taunt Kapoor and make him continue. At another Christmas celebration, Kapoor has to dance for the crowd until someone tells him where Javed lives, where they finally capture him.

Javed directs them to where he was told to take Sonam, but Kashyap insists they are not going to the right place. They arrive at what turns out to be Kashyap's house, and another call confirms that Sonam is in his DVD room. When they get in, not only is Sonam gone, but Kashyap's parents have also been kidnapped. After a struggle between the trio, Kashyap reveals the original site he had planned and they rush to it as time runs out. A mysterious masked man filming with another camera shows up, but they don't find anyone else there as the sun rises. Although Kashyap repeatedly claims that these events were not in his script, Kapoor discovers a copy and forces him to read it, which states that Kashyap intentionally diverted him, then would take a gun out from his bag and force Kapoor to kill either of themselves. Kapoor interrogates an increasingly agitated Kashyap with the aforementioned gun and accidentally shoots him.

The perspective shifts to a more standard one as Kapoor and Yogita drive Kashyap to the hospital. Sonam and Kashyap's parents are actually found in the basement of Kashyap's home, and Kashyap is to be convicted for their kidnapping. As he lays in his hospital bed, Kapoor reveals that he was the actual mastermind behind everything: angered at Kashyap's comments, he convinced Yogita after the panel show to help frame Kashyap in exchange for an opportunity to break into the industry and conspired alongside his family to make most of the dramatic turns happen, with Harshvardhan having purposely hit him with the car. Months later, the resulting film wins Yogita, credited as the director, and Kapoor Filmfare Awards, while a deranged Kashyap plots vengeance from a mental asylum.

• Anil Kapoor as himself
• Anurag Kashyap as himself
• Yogita Bihani as herself
• Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as herself
• Harshvardhan Kapoor as himself
• Sucharita Tyagi as herself
• Boney Kapoor as himself
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as himself (voice, cameo)[1]

Trailer launch of AK vs AK, with (from left to right) Kashyap, Motwane and Kapoor

The film's development started in 2013, when Sampath thought of and sent the concept to Motwane.[2] Initially the film was titled AK vs SK, with a somewhat different story and cast as revealed in 2015; Shahid Kapoor[lower-alpha 1] would play himself in the actor's role, the catalyst of the plot would be Shahid Kapoor rejecting Kashyap's next film after the latter's latest venture flopped at the box office, and Shahid Kapoor's wife would be kidnapped instead.[3] It was also speculated that Shahid Kapoor's wife Mira Rajput would also make her debut in the film as herself, but this was later denied by Shahid Kapoor and his spokesperson.[3][4][5] Although he had already started filming for the project, Shahid Kapoor pulled out due to date clashes and it was shelved in 2016.[6][7] Shahid and Motwane agreed to start working on the film again in the near future, with a planned restart in 2017.[8] However, Motwane could only revisit the project in 2019 after finishing Bhavesh Joshi Superhero and Sacred Games, and decided to cast Anil Kapoor instead, stating he "always wanted a commercial star". He rewrote the script alongside Sampath with Kapoor in mind in August that year.[6][9] Motwane gave the script to Kapoor in November; to Motwane's surprise, he received it well and allowed the film to mock him in any way.[10][11] Kapoor's children, Sonam and Harshvardan, also agreed to join the project after Kapoor read the script to his family that night.[6][10] On the other hand, Kapoor's wife Sunita refused to be involved in the film at all; Kashyap humourously noted "while nothing was out of bounds as far as personal attacks against each other go, the only place they weren't allowed to enter was 'Sunita's bedroom'".[12]

AK vs AK was produced by Andolan Films, a new company that Motwane founded after the disbanding of Phantom Films, which he partially owned.[13][14] Shooting took place over 21 days in late 2019 or early 2020, with Kapoor stating that "this is the fastest film I have done in my career".[lower-alpha 3] Although scenes were shot at Kashyap's actual house, sets were put up to stand in for the streets of Mumbai as well as Kapoor's house.[9] However, according to Kapoor, much of the film's interactions are not staged, such as requests for selfies from Kapoor's fans throughout his search.[10] The Guardian described shooting as taking place "under-the-radar" and commented on how unexpectedly close the initial announcement of the film was to its release date.[16] Three separate trailers, one from the perspective of each "AK" and an "original, director's cut", were released at a launch ceremony on 7 December.[17] To promote the ceremony, Kashyap and Kapoor engaged in a "Twitter war" the day before.[18] The Indian Air Force (IAF) objected to a scene in the film featured in the trailer showing Kapoor cursing while dressed in an inaccurate IAF uniform. Kapoor later stated that the character was only an actor in the role of an IAF officer[lower-alpha 4] and posted a video offering his apology for hurting anyone's sentiments.[19] In the weeks leading up to the film, Kapoor and Kashyap made more marketing material focusing on their "rivalry", creating videos and putting up billboards insulting each other.[20]

The music for the film was mostly composed and produced by Alokananda Dasgupta (with the exception of Khalaas, which was composed by Nuka and Rakhis[22]), who said she didn't understand the film's "technical depth" at first, but decided to interpret it as "three films within a film" and craft the score through that view.[23] Weiting for NDTV, Narinder Saini called the soundtrack "fun" and "catchy", and thought it would further increase the film's popularity.[21] Bollywood Hungama praised the background music for fitting the film's themes, but criticised the songs Duniya Badi Gol and Ghum, stating that they "are in a wacky space".[24] On the other hand, Roktim Rajpal of Deccan Herald described the background music as "generic".[25]

AK vs AK was released as a Netflix original film on 24 December 2020, Kapoor's birthday and the same day most of the film takes place.[26] The film was reviewed mostly positively by critics in the days surrounding its release.[27] The meta, mockumentary-like structure of the film was hailed for its uniqueness, with Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV declaring it "Hindi Cinema's Halley's Comet".[28][29][24] Kapoor's and Kashyap's acting were also well received; the former was particularly praised, with Bollywood Hungama calling it "one of the finest performances of his career" and Tanul Thakur of The Wire describing him as "raw, real, searing".[24][30] However, the final scenes and the ending twist were considered to be rather disappointing; Anupama Chopra of Film Companion stated "like so many meta movies, it eventually trips on its own cleverness and hits a dead end."[31][32] Some critics remarked that its release timing helped; giving the film four stars out of five, Mike McCahill of The Guardian called the film a "postmodern surprise" in an "undistinguished pandemic year [for] Indian cinema", and Rahul Desai of Film Companion felt that its 2020 release "elevates the cheeky Netflix thriller into the realms of profound social messaging".[16][33] In a more mixed review, Rajpal opined that the "meta" format set back the film, and also criticised its editing and pacing.[25]

In an interview, Motwane said "We weren't making a comment intentionally... the aim was also to set the film up for an audience that is not voyeuristic about the industry".[34] However, multiple reviewers explored the film's use of inside information on and the reputations of the main actors and Bollywood in general, as well as broader questions about the roles and expectations of the film industry.[35][36] The tussle between the two main characters has been perceived as a proxy for the conflict between established personalities with a history of nepotism, such as Kapoor, a member of the "first family of Indian cinema", and relative outsiders such as Kashyap.[36][16] One scene, where Kapoor has to dance for the crowd to gain information on where Javed is, was seen by some as commentary on how the public retains power over movie stars by being able to determine their success.[31][32]

• AK vs AK at IMDb