Deepika Padukone & Akshay Oberoi Movies Together List — 3 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s belonged to Piku; the 2020s to Fighter. Deepika Padukone acted in every film; Akshay Oberoi acted in all of them.

Partnership facts

• Akshay Oberoi almost didn't get cast in Piku. He auditioned twice and was rejected. Deepika personally asked director Shoojit Sircar to give him another shot after seeing his screen test. He got the role of the taxi driver's son.
• In Piku, Deepika set the rhythm of every scene they shared. She deliberately slowed down her dialogue delivery to match Akshay's nervous energy as the shy driver. He later said she 'held his hand' through the takes without ever breaking character.
• During Fighter, Deepika and Akshay had a running joke about their 'taxi driver' origins. Every morning on set, she'd call him 'Sycamore' (his character's name from Piku) and he'd call her 'Piku'. The crew didn't get it for weeks.
• Akshay Oberoi on Deepika: 'She doesn't just act with you. She listens to your breathing. In Piku, she'd pause a beat longer than the script said, just so I could catch up. That's why it looked real.'
• Because of their Piku pairing, Shoojit Sircar cast Akshay in his next film 'October' — a role that won him a Filmfare nomination. Deepika had recommended him for that too.
• In Fighter, their dynamic flipped. Deepika played the commanding squadron leader, Akshay the hot-headed rookie. He said she deliberately stayed in character off-camera — barking orders at him between takes — to keep his 'junior officer' frustration real for the scene.