Aakash Kaushik’s directorial debut Udta Teer is already sparking conversation — not just for its premise, but for the audacity behind it.
Aakash Kaushik’s directorial debut Udta Teer is already sparking conversation — not just for its premise, but for the audacity behind it. The film, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan, follows an intelligence operative who is Indian in one half of the story and Pakistani in the other. That’s not a metaphor.
It’s literal. And according to Kaushik, that was the point. In a rare interview with The Free Press Journal, he revealed his real intention: ‘I wanted Pakistan to say Jai Hind.’ Not as a joke. As a provocation.
A wish. A dream wrapped in satire. He didn’t say it would happen. But he said he wanted it to.
That’s the kind of boldness that comes from someone who’s spent years writing horror comedies, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Bhooth Bangla, where absurdity isn’t a flaw, it’s the engine. Now, stepping behind the camera, he’s testing how far that same energy can go. The film blends action, comedy, suspense, and twists, a genre-hopping ride that even Kaushik admits wasn’t easy to sell at first.
But faith held. Producers believed. The cast did too. And Mukul Dev, who plays the terrorist Azhar Maqsood, delivered what Kaushik calls a performance shaped by his own ideas, accents, and late-night laughter.
They’d talk at 12:30 am, just to relive a scene. He’s gone now. Kaushik misses him. Says he’s smiling from above.
The film doesn’t shy from its contradictions, patriotic sentiment meets cross-border identity play, high stakes meet slapstick. It’s messy. Intentionally so. And that’s exactly why it’s working.
Audiences are responding. Critics are watching. The question isn’t whether it’ll be a hit. It’s whether it’ll make people think, or just laugh.
Or both. One thing’s certain: Aakash Kaushik isn’t making safe films. And he’s not done yet. The next project?
He hasn’t said. But the offer list, he hints, is long. Horror comedies keep coming. So do the laughs.
And maybe, just maybe, the hope that one day, across borders, someone says Jai Hind.
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