AK vs AK

About the film

AK vs AK is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language black comedy thriller film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and is the first release under his banner Andolan Films. Anurag Kashyap, the executive producer and dialogue writer, also stars alongside Anil Kapoor as the title characters with Harshvardhan Kapoor and debutante Yogita Bihani in pivotal roles.

The story, written by Avinash Sampath, utilises a film-within-a-film narrative where the main actors play fictionalised versions of themselves. After a public feud between Kashyap, an eccentric film director, and Anil Kapoor, an ageing film star, the former kidnaps the latter's daughter (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja) and forces Kapoor to search for her while his assistant (Bihani) films them as part of his next project, with most of the film shown from the perspective of her camera.

Plot

The film starts from the camera of an aspiring filmmaker, Yogita, who is filming Anurag Kashyap for a documentary. 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, culminating in Kashyap throwing a glass of water in Kapoor's face. This becomes a major scandal for Kashyap, with other film personalities cutting ties with him and backing out of his projects. As he sits in his bedroom, enraged, Yogita gives him an idea.

Later, on Christmas Eve and Kapoor's birthday, Kashyap visits his set along with Yogita and pitches him a new story about a mad director who kidnaps the daughter of an ageing actor. Kapoor is initially uninterested until he realises that his daughter, Sonam, has actually been abducted by Kashyap, who wants to capture his real reactions during his search. Kashyap tells him that he has ten hours (until sunrise the next day) to find her and sets four rules: he can't get anyone else involved or call the police, all phone calls must be on speakerphone, and Yogita's camera must always stay on.

Kapoor first tries going to a police station, but Kashyap and Yogita convince them it is just a rehearsal for their film. Kapoor is still somewhat unconvinced that Sonam was really abducted, so Kashyap shows a live feed of her being held by a masked man with a knife. After talking to his son Harshvardhan, Kapoor learns from her driver that she was last seen at a hotel. He bribes the manager there with an endorsement to see the CCTV footage and spots the getaway driver's face; however, his search on the streets of Mumbai returns little success. Kapoor goes home and stealthily texts Harshvardhan the truth, but his confused reaction alerts Kashyap, who confronts Kapoor upstairs. While they fight, the masked man severs Sonam's finger, so Kapoor relents. Eventually, someone directs him to a Christmas celebration, where Kapoor finds the driver, Javed, through the viewfinder. Kapoor chases him through and around Mumbai Central before a car hits him. Bloodied, Kapoor breaks down in front of the camera, regretting his absence as a father and begging Yogita for any information. Kashyap, having slowed down 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.

Production

The film's development started in 2013, when Sampath thought of and sent the concept to Motwane. Originally, they thought of seeking Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar as the "actor", but decided against the former and were rebuffed by the latter. Later, Shahid Kapoor took the role and the film was retitled AK vs SK, with a somewhat different story and cast as revealed in 2015; 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. It was also initially reported 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's spokesperson. Although he had already started filming for the project, Shahid Kapoor pulled out due to date clashes and it was shelved in 2016. Shahid and Motwane agreed to start working on the film again in the near future, with a planned restart in 2017. 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. 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 w…

AK vs AK was produced by Andolan Films, a new company that Motwane founded after the disbanding of Phantom Films, which he partially owned. 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". 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. 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. 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. 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. To promote the ceremony, Kashyap and Kapoor engaged in a "Twitter war" the day before. 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.

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