Anupam Kher & Aftab Shivdasani Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s account for 71% of everything they made together. The 1990s belonged to Insaniyat; the 2000s to Dus Kahaniyaan. Anupam Kher acted in every film; Aftab Shivdasani acted in all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Their first film together, Sau Crore (1991), was a low-budget thriller where Anupam Kher played a cop and Aftab Shivdasani played a young man caught in a murder plot. The director, Rajkumar Kohli, cast them specifically because he wanted a veteran actor to anchor a newcomer — and Kher agreed only after reading the full script in one sitting.
• In Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe (2002), Kher played Aftab's overprotective father. The film's emotional core — a father-son confrontation scene — was shot in one take because Kher insisted on real-time improvisation. Aftab later said Kher would deliberately throw unexpected line readings at him to keep his reactions raw.
• During the shoot of Shukriya (2004), Aftab was going through a personal low after a breakup. Kher reportedly took him aside, told him to channel that pain into the crying scene, and then stayed on set for two extra hours just to talk him through it. Aftab has called Kher his 'on-set therapist' in interviews.
• Their only multi-starrer anthology, Dus Kahaniyaan (2007), was the first Hindi film to feature a segment directed by a woman (Meghna Gulzar). Kher and Aftab's segment — about a con artist and his mark — was the one that got the most festival play, and it directly led to Meghna Gulzar getting her next directorial break.
• Aftab Shivdasani, in a 2006 interview with Filmfare, said about Kher: 'He doesn't act with you. He acts at you. Every scene with him is like a sparring match — you either get knocked out or you learn to dodge.'