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.

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.

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.

Months later, the resulting film nets some Filmfare Awards for Yogita (as director) and Kapoor, while a deranged Kashyap plots vengeance from a mental asylum.

[10] 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".

[8][12] On the other hand, Kapoor's wife Sunita refused to be involved in the film at all; Kashyap humorously noted "while nothing was out of bounds as far as personal attacks against each other go, the only place they weren't allowed to enter was 'Sunita's bedroom'".

[12] 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.

[20] 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.

Kapoor later stated that the character was only an actor in the role of an IAF officer[c] and posted a video offering his apology for hurting anyone's sentiments.

[23] Bollywood Hungama praised the background music for fitting the film's themes, but criticised the songs Duniya Badi Gol and Ghum, stating that they "are in a wacky space".

[28] The meta, mockumentary-like structure of the film was hailed for its uniqueness, with Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV declaring it "Hindi Cinema's Halley's Comet".

[29][30][1] Kapoor's and Kashyap's acting were also well received; the former was particularly praised, with Bollywood Hungama calling it "one of the finest performances of his career" and Tanul Thakur of The Wire describing him as "raw, real, searing".

[36][37] The tussle between the two main characters has been perceived as a proxy for the conflict between established personalities with a history of nepotism, such as Kapoor, a member of the "first family of Indian cinema", and relative outsiders such as Kashyap.

[37][18] One scene, where Kapoor has to dance for the crowd to gain information on where Javed is, was seen by some as commentary on how the public retains power over movie stars by being able to determine their success.