‘Akshay Kumar didn’t say get out of my office, but it was close enough’: Vikramaditya Motwane recalls approaching actor for AK vs AK

Asked if Aamir was considered, he said, “I was like, ‘Aamir is never going to do it’, so let’s not even try. Akshay Kumar, who we did approach, and it was a very interesting meeting.” He added with a laugh, “He didn’t outrightly say ‘get out of my office’, but it was close enough to being that.” The film was actually supposed to star Shahid Kapoor originally, and it was called AK vs SK at that time. But without offering any reasons, Shahid told DNA in 2016 that he’d backed out. “AK vs SK isn’t happening anymore. I am not doing that film,” he said.

Motwane said that while everybody loved Kapoor’s performance in the film, Kashyap was also ‘incredible’ in it, especially in the last scene. AK vs AK was released on Netflix in 2020, after Motwane and Kashyap had delivered two seasons of Sacred Games for the streamer. The film received mixed reviews, with the Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta writing, “Motwane’s movie is not just meta. It’s meta-meta, especially when some parts hit too close to the mark, and some are just tantalisingly off the mark.”