‘Tu hoga Oscar-winning actor par…’: ‘Frustrated’ Rishi Kapoor would scold Irrfan Khan on D-Day sets, recalls Nikkhil Advani | Bollywood News
3 min readMumbaiFeb 3, 2026 06:05 PM IST
Nobody can forget the tragedy and uncertainty that the initial days of the pandemic brought, and that sense of shock almost doubled at the end of April, when two veterans of the film industry passed away a day apart: Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor. The trauma was collective for the nation, just as it was intensely personal for their loved ones. Fortunately, both had shared the screen once in Nikkhil Advani’s spy actioner D-Day, released in 2013, where they delivered performances at the peak of their craft. In fact, when they passed away, a still of them from D-Day went viral across the internet.
Recently, in an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Advani reflected on how both actors bonded effortlessly on the sets of the film. “They both hit it off instantly. Rishi Kapoor used to love the chicken that Irrfan made, who really loved cooking, and they bonded really well when we were shooting in the Rann of Kutch area.” However, Advani also recounted how they came from very different schools of acting. Irrfan loved to improvise, while Rishi was particular about sticking to his lines. This sometimes funnily created a friction, and Rishi would occasionally get frustrated with Irrfan’s improvisations.
“Irrfan had just come from Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, and he likes to improvise. He doesn’t like to repeat the same thing over multiple takes because he would think, ‘Then what’s the point of doing another take?’ And Rishi Kapoor was the kind of person who would say, ‘Hit your mark, yaar. Say the line, line par aaja. Tu Oscar-winning actor hoga par bas mujhe bata dein ki tu last words kaunse use karega? I have my cue, I’m waiting for my cue.’ (Hit your mark man. Say the line. You might be an Oscar-winning actor but just tell me which last words you will use. I have my cue, I’m waiting for it.) He belonged to that old-school brigade, so it was quite funny to see. They were from different schools, but they truly respected and admired each other for that one week they shot together.”
Watch the episode of Cult Comebacks on D-Day here:
In the same conversation, Advani also reflected on how D-Day has found its fanbase over time, even though it initially struggled at the box office. “Over the years, people text me saying it was brilliant, it was the film that made me a filmmaker. But it was disheartening on day one when it released for just Rs 1.75 crore, and I was like, ‘What the hell happened?’”
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