Bollywood star Anil Kapoor had a public spat with Anurag Kashyap in what appears to be an orchestrated publicity gimmick for their movie ‘AK vs AK’ on Netflix. Netflix describes the movie as “After a public spat with a movie star, a disgraced director retaliates by kidnapping the actor’s daughter, filming the search for her in real time.”
The movie is categorised as a dark comedy. The apparently orchestrated public spat on Twitter began with Anurag Kashyap taking potshots at Anil Kapoor after the latter congratulated the makers of Delhi Crime for winning the best drama series honour at the 48th International Emmy Awards. The director asked the actor where was his Oscar award.
Anil Kapoor responded by reminding Anurag Kashyap that Slumdog Millionaire, a movie where the actor had played a prominent role, had won the Oscars for the best movie in 2009. Anurag Kashyap then said that he was the king of ‘hand-me-down’ movies and that he was the second choice for his role in the award-winning movie.
The spat moved on body hair after that. It is pertinent to mention that Anil Kapoor has been mocked for his body hair with memes such as ‘Manchesthair United’, a wordplay on the name of Manchester United, one of the most popular football clubs in the world. When he said that he doesn’t have to tear his hair to get roles in movies, the director responded that the actor gets roles on the basis of his body hair.
That the ‘public spat’ is likely part of promotion efforts for the movie AK vs AK became clear when the actor used the hashtag ‘The Real AK’. The ‘spat’ appears to have ended with Anil Kapoor saying that the only thing he regretted was working in a movie with Anurag Kashyap.
Movies and web series in recent times have used such ‘innovative’ techniques to promote their products. On certain occasions, it has backfired on them. Sony Liv came under intense criticism after it deployed telecallers to promote Undekhi, a thriller web series that is apparently inspired from true events.
People received calls from telecallers where a man can be heard saying that he has recorded a murder on his phone in a very distressed voice. He calls himself Rishi and says that one ‘Rinku’ is attempting to murder him too. This was before another voice says “Undekhi… streaming now on Sony Liv.”
