AK vs AK: IAF Seeks Removal of Promo Video Over Misrepresentation

The video features scenes from Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap's upcoming Netflix film.

Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor in a still from a promotional video for AK vs AK

(Photo courtesy: Netflix/Altered by The Quint)

A tweet from the official handle of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has criticized Anil Kapoor for wearing an IAF uniform incorrectly in a recent promotional video for his upcoming Netflix film AK vs AK. It also said that the "language used (in the video) is inappropriate" and demanded that the offending scenes be withdrawn. The IAF was responding to a tweet posted by Kapoor in which he shared the video.

Tagging Netflix India and Anurag Kashyap, who also stars in the film, the tweet read, “The IAF uniform in this video is inaccurately donned & the language used is inappropriate. This does not conform to the behavioural norms of those in the Armed Forces of India. The related scenes need to be withdrawn.”

The video flagged by the IAF is a contrived montage telling Anil Kapoor's version of what "really happened" in AK vs AK and features some clips from the trailer. Presenting Kapoor as a tantrum-throwing star, it begins with him swearing at Kashyap after he approaches him with the script. "I've already abused you. I can do it again because you made Wasseypur. You're not an ordinary *******, you're the Ranveer Singh of ********," he says while dressed in an IAF uniform.

Anil Kapoor plays himself in the film, not a member of the IAF, and the uniform appears to be a costume he's wearing as an actor on the set of a fictional film. As per the narrative of the film, Kashyap pulls Kapoor out of the sets of a film in which he portrays an IAF character and that’s why the actor is seen in the uniform throughout most of the film.

Anurag Kashyap and Anil Kapoor have been having "quarrels" on Twitter as part of the promotions for AK vs AK. Directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, the film features the Bollywood star and filmmaker as themselves. They are both at loggerheads with each other when Kashyap kidnaps Kapoor’s daughter (the real Sonam Kapoor) and sets him off on a desperate search for her while he films the whole ordeal. The film releases on Netflix on 24 December.