Director Nikkhil Advani once reminisced about the late Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpayee, and Anurag Kashyap bonding over endless cups of chai. Their lively discussions, fuelled by debates about whether the tea in Banaras, Kanpur, or Bareilly was the best, touched upon life, cinema, and everything in between.
Advani described how their camaraderie flourished during these chai sessions, creating some of the most memorable conversations.
Speaking on Cyrus Broacha’s podcast “Cyrus Says”, Nikkhil shared, “We all—Manoj Bajpayee, Irrfan Khan, Anurag Kashyap, and I—used to hang out together. Back then, no one had money. The rule was, you could eat the food, but if you wanted booze, you had to bring your own. People would come with a quarter, and there was a terrace where we’d spend two or three days just talking.
They’d debate whether chai from Banaras was better than the chai from Kanpur or Bareilly. I, being a South Bombay boy, was clueless—what was Banaras chai? Kanpur chai? Why were they so passionate about it and discussing it in such chaste Hindi?”
Advani also shared a light-hearted memory from his school days with filmmaker Karan Johar, revealing that they were in rival houses, and he often ended up teasing Johar during that time.
On the work front, Nikkhil Advani is known for directing films like “Batla House”, “Delhi Safari”, “Salaam-E-Ishq”, “Patiala House”, and “Chandni Chowk to China.”
His latest project, “Freedom at Midnight”, adapted from Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins’ iconic book, explores the 1947 Partition of India. Created and directed by Advani, the series stars Sidhant Gupta, Chirag Vohra, and Rajendra Chawla, and premiered on SonyLIV on November 15.
