Anupam Kher Just Gave Cannes Its Most Unexpected Bromance Moment

At Cannes, everyone wants a moment. But not everyone gets a kiss on the cheek from Robert De Niro.

Anupam Kher did.

Cannes has always been a strange cocktail of champagne, cinema, and self-importance. But every now and then, amid the chaos of camera flashes and overpriced caviar, comes a moment so oddly sincere, it almost disarms you. Case in point: Anupam Kher and Robert De Niro hugging it out on the French Riviera like two long-lost uncles at a family reunion.

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For context: Kher’s at Cannes to premiere his second directorial venture, Tanvi The Great, a film with a surprisingly global cast that includes Karan Tacker, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Arvind Swami, and Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen. But it was his Instagram post that really lit the fuse. A video of Kher and De Niro embracing like old theatre-school mates—cue kiss on the cheek, a giddy “Oh wow! I love it” from Kher, and a hug tight enough to knock a camera out of focus. If you’re wondering what Cannes’ biggest red carpet moment was so far, it wasn’t a gown—it was this hug.

“Best hug from the greatest actor of all times,” he captioned the video on Instagram, sounding like a fanboy and a friend all at once. De Niro even planted a kiss on his cheek. Kher practically levitated.

And honestly? It was kind of great.

Because Cannes can be a deeply unserious place wrapped in Very Serious Cinema, and yet here were two men with actual history—Silver Linings Playbook, 2012, remember that?—catching up like they never left the frame. There was warmth. There was nostalgia. There was zero irony.

In a lengthy note attached to the post, Kher also congratulated the Hollywood actor for the award.

"In Cannes: Best hug from the greatest actor of all times! It was the most amazing feeling to meet my friend #RobertDeNiro, his graceful wife #Tiffany and their beautiful daughter #Gia in Cannes! Their love and affection touched me deeply," the Indian actor wrote.

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Kher, who’s been everywhere from Saaransh to The Big Sick, knows how to play the moment. And Cannes, in all its feathered finery, is made for that. But this little reunion cut through the pageantry. No overstyled photo dump, no PR jargon—just two veterans of the craft, vibing, one of them clutching a movie poster like it was a school project.

In a week full of self-congratulatory cinema and existential slow burns, this was the simplest—and possibly most cinematic—moment of all. A hug. A kiss. A poster. Two actors who’ve been around the world and back, finding each other again in the blur of flashbulbs and foreign press.

Kher called it the most amazing feeling. For the rest of us, it was just refreshingly… human.