Finding an Easter egg in a movie can be a delightful experience, it momentarily makes one feel the connection with the filmmaker who carefully hid the inside joke, reference, or homage in their work in the hope that a careful viewer will spot it. The term Easter egg comes from the Easter egg hunt in which people search for hidden eggs on Easter Sunday. Recently, an X post prompted people to share the “coolest easter-egg in a movie or show?”. This post inspired a slew of responses that ranged from Easter eggs hidden in post-credits in the 1994 comedy Andaz Apna Apna to names of characters in the 2015 film Piku. Here are some of the best responses:

An X user referred to the 2015 neo-noir thriller Badllapur and noted that every time the film’s plot makes a major shift, the scene shows the railway station “Badlapur” in the background. Reportedly, the film’s director Sriram Raghavan made this cinematic choice as an ode to a former train station named Badlapur where trains would change tracks.

Comedian and filmmaker Varun Grover chimed in and wrote, “After Ramadoss enforced a smoking ban, Abhay Deol’s character in Manorama Six Feet Under goes to a cigarette shop in a scene and says “Ek Ramadoss dena!” Grover was referring to former Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss’s strict ban on smoking in public places.

An X user highlighted a strange alteration in the film credits the of 1994 comedy Andaz Apna Apna. They wrote, “In the film credits of Andaz Apna Apna, Shakti Kapoor’s name has the ‘S’ striked out and is spelt with a ‘T,’ thus making it ‘Thakti’. This is because Shakti’s character cannot say ‘S’. He replaces ‘S’ with ‘T.’ Thus, instead of saying ‘Namaste’ his character says ‘Namatte.’”

Another X user highlighted an intentional similarity between Aamir Khan’s 2014 film PK and his 2001 film Lagaan and wrote, “Not an Easter egg but a hat-tip. PK uses the same line when accepting the Baba’s challenge as Bhuvan in Lagaan when accepting Capt. Russell’s bet. He even says it the same way. “Sarat manjoor hai.”

An eagle-eyed viewer pointed out a minute detail in the 2007 film No Smoking and wrote, “In No Smoking-the rehab centre had a large repository of VHS tapes, having records of every incident & happenings in the lives of the patients including John’s character ‘K’ also. There we see a VHS with a name KK Menon(coz KK Menon was the first choice to play the lead role ‘K’).”

A cinema buff noted how SRK’s character sports outfits from his films Duplicate, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Se, Pardes, Badshah, and more in the title track of 2000 film Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Cleverly, this costume change is seen when the song’s lyrics go, “kabhi nayi packet mein beche tumko cheez purani”

On X user pointed out that in Shoojit Sircar’s Piku, Amitabh Bachhan’s character was named Bhashkor Banerjee as a tribute to his character Dr Bhaskar Banerjee in the 1971 film Anand.

Amongst all these Easter eggs, several users pointed to an “unconfirmed” Easter egg in Anurag Kashyap’s 2009 film Dev.D. In the film’s famous song “Emosanal Attyachar”, the lyrics go “Ek, Do, Teen, Chaar…Che”. The lyrics miss the number five (Paanch), reportedly to indicate how Kashyap’s film Paanch never got a theatrical release due to the Censor Board’s certification issues.

However, Kashyap has mentioned that he did not add this Easter egg and any fan theories about the missing “Paanch” can only be confirmed by lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya who wrote the song.