Sunil Shetty & Apoorva Lakhia Movies Together List — 3 Films
Complete Movies List & Collaboration History
Last updated: 2026-06-03 · Data sources: Wikipedia, TMDB
Sunil Shetty and Apoorva Lakhia appeared together in 3 Hindi films between 2007 and 2008. Their highest-rated collaboration was Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007 — 6.3/10). Films span Dus Kahaniyaan (2007) through Mission Istaanbul (2008).
The Sunil Shetty & Apoorva Lakhia partnership
From Dus Kahaniyaan (2007) to Mission Istaanbul (2008). It started with Dus Kahaniyaan (2007).
The shape of the work
Sunil Shetty acted in every film; Apoorva Lakhia directed all of them. Strictly Hindi cinema — they never crossed industries together.
Partnership facts
- Apoorva Lakhia cast Sunil Shetty in 'Shootout at Lokhandwala' after seeing his intensity in 'Dhadkan' — but the role of Inspector Shamsher Khan was originally written for a younger actor. Shetty convinced Lakhia he could pull it off by showing up to the meeting with a real police officer's walk and a beard he'd grown for a week.
- On the set of 'Dus Kahaniyaan', Lakhia realized Shetty was better at improvising action beats than reading from the script. So for their next two films, Lakhia would give Shetty only a rough outline of the fight scene and let him choreograph the punches himself — Shetty's real-life black belt in Taekwondo became the secret weapon in every Lakhia action sequence.
- Because of their partnership, actor Vivek Oberoi got his career-best role as Maya Dolas in 'Shootout at Lokhandwala'. Lakhia had written the part for Shetty, but Shetty insisted Oberoi would bring more menace — and then personally coached Oberoi on the set to match his own intensity. That film directly led to Oberoi's casting in 'Krrish 3' and 'Rakht Charitra'.
- During the making of 'Mission Istaanbul', Shetty and Lakhia had a falling out over the film's budget. Shetty felt Lakhia was overspending on VFX; Lakhia felt Shetty was micromanaging. They didn't speak for three months after the film flopped. They reconciled only in 2010, when Shetty called Lakhia to apologize after watching 'Ek Ajnabee' on TV.
- "Sunil is the only actor who can make a dialogue like 'Maine tumhe kabhi nahi dekha' sound like a threat. He doesn't act — he just stares, and the camera loves it." — Apoorva Lakhia, in a 2008 interview with Filmfare about directing Shetty in 'Mission Istaanbul'.
3 films across 1 decade
- Shootout at Lokhandwala
- Dus Kahaniyaan
The partnership in numbers
Partnership Pattern
3 films across 1 years represents consistent collaboration.
Language Distribution
Linguistic diversity: 1 language, with Hindi being their primary medium.
Where each was in their career
When they first worked together, Sunil Shetty had 78 films behind them; Apoorva Lakhia had 2.
Before Dus Kahaniyaan, Sunil Shetty had starred in 78 films, including Phir Hera Pheri (2006) and Umrao Jaan (2006).
After Mission Istaanbul, Sunil Shetty went on to appear in 17 more films, including Red Alert: The War Within (2010) and Darbar (2020).
Before Dus Kahaniyaan, Apoorva Lakhia had directed 2 films, including Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (2003) and Ek Ajnabee (2005).
After Mission Istaanbul, Apoorva Lakhia went on to direct 6 more films, including Knock Out (2010) and Hide & Seek (2010).
Collaboration Journey
A chronological view of Sunil Shetty & Apoorva Lakhia's professional partnership
Actors and musicians who worked on most of their films
Abhishek Bachchan is the through-line — cast on 2 of their 3 films.
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