A Shabana-Smita kind of war between Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui the two reigning kings of avant-garde cinema has been brewing for a while. It's now come out in the open when at the Filmfare awards while thanking his team and co-stars for his performance in The Lunchbox Nawaz didn't mention Irrfan's name.

Protesting on the morning after the awards function that much ado was being made out of nothing Nawaz said, `There was nothing deliberate in this. I didn't mention a lot of people by name. I just wanted to thank the entire team of The Lunchbox.`


Yes,I point out, but Nawaz did mention Nimrat Kaur with whom he had hardly one scene and not Irrfan wth whom he shared almost every frame in The Lunchbox.

Irrfan defends himself saying, `It just happened that way. There was not intention to ignore him. I've nothing against Irrfan. In fact I've the highest regard for him as an actor. I don't know why such an issue is being made about our so-called rivalry. We are both reserved people.We like to keep to ourselves. We may not be the best of friends. But we are certainly not enemies. I guess people like to pitch actors pf similar sensibilities together, like Shabana and Smita or Naseer and Om.`


To prove how wrong people are about their rivalry Nawaz says, `Irrfan and I were together last week at the Sundance Film Festival where my film Liars Dice was shown.There was absolutely no stress between us. In fact Irrfan is very happy for me.And he says it.`