New Delhi: The India-Pakistan rivalry now has a Coke Studio twist to it.
When Bollywood actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan went to the Attari-Wagah border Wednesday to promote their film Udta Teer, an upcoming spy comedy, there was a musical interruption.
The Pakistani side began playing Atif Aslam’s rendition of Tajdar-e-Haram, the celebrated qawwali featured in Coke Studio (Season 8). Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the music competing with the actors’ promotional appearance.
Both Khurrana and Khan continued to speak even as the song played in the background.
The chaotic joke was not lost on either side of the border. Pakistanis appreciated their quintessential humour, and even Indians joined in.
When Pakistan X user Iqra called it ‘peak ragebaiting’, Indian X user Fleabag and Laila wrote, “As an Indian, I find this funny.”
Pakistanis meanwhile could not stop laughing at their own.
X user Natasha added, “India really doesn’t understand; Pakistan is a real-life meme. They have nothing in their arsenal to deal with a country that has a sense of humour.”
Others decided it was a ripe time to take a dig at India.
Sadaf Haider, another X user, questioned the decision to hold the promotional event at the border: “Why come to the border in the first place? Tajdar e Haram was exactly the right response,” she wrote.
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‘Indians obsessed with Pakistan’
Udta Teer is an upcoming spy comedy directed by Akash A. Kaushik. The film mixes espionage, mistaken identity and political satire, and the trailer already attracted attention for its treatment of patriotism and India-Pakistan relations.
Khurrana plays Bilal, a Pakistani spy who loses his memory in an explosion and comes to believe that he is an Indian counterterrorism officer. His handlers struggle to comprehend the transformation, setting up a comedy built around mistaken loyalties and competing national identities.
Sara Ali Khan plays a counterterrorism operative in the film, which also marks the actors’ second on-screen pairing after Pati Patni Aur Woh Do! (2026).
The film’s tagline says, “Deshbhakti toh yaad hai… par desh nahi,” which roughly translates to, “The patriotism is remembered … but not the country.”
Pakistanis are unimpressed. They feel India is obsessed with Pakistan.
“Never come across a single Pakistani nearly as obsessed with India as Indians are with Pakistan… biggest democracy, biggest economy needs to do better leave us alone,” an X user added.
Pakistani anthropologist Arsalan Khan offered a stinging comment: “I didn’t expect Ayushmann to be such a clown.”
Pakistani activist Sabah Bano Malik added, “This has genuinely made me so happy… like truly what a delight.”
(Edited by Ratan Priya)