District by Zomato has rolled out a campaign featuring actors Boman Irani and Anupam Kher to announce the launch of ‘Splitpay’, a feature designed to eliminate the social and financial friction of group dining.

Built directly into the District app, Splitpay allows everyone at the table to settle their share on the spot, replacing the familiar end-of-meal routine of one person paying and the rest settling up later through transfers and reminders.

The campaign consists of an ad film. It centres on Irani and Kher as close friends caught in the all too familiar ritual of arguing over who gets to pay the restaurant bill. When the waiter arrives and asks who will settle the tab, both instantly respond, "The District app," before launching into a playful debate about who always ends up paying. What begins as a lighthearted exchange quickly spirals into an exaggerated physical tussle, drawing curious stares from nearby diners. The chaos reaches its comic peak when Kher stuffs the bill into his mouth to prevent Irani from paying, while the commotion becomes so dramatic that even children at neighbouring tables are left in tears. The film then contrasts this absurdity with a simpler solution: the District's Splitpay feature, which allows every diner to pay their exact share instantly while earning cashback, eliminating the need for one person to foot the entire bill. The film closes on a final comic note, with Kher brandishing a knife and declaring, "No one lets me pay," underscoring the lengths people go to in the age-old battle over the bill.

What we think about it: The film takes a familiar social ritual and pushes it to delightfully absurd extremes, making Splitpay's proposition both memorable and entertaining. Boman Irani and Anupam Kher's comic timing elevates the narrative, turning what could have been a straightforward product demo into a genuinely engaging watch.

Rahul Ganjoo, CEO, District by Zomato, said, "A meal out belongs to the whole table, but it has always ended with the least social moment: one person paying and everyone else doing maths. It's something we noticed at restaurant tables, on social media, and in conversations with our users, so we built Splitpay to fix it. It's one more step in the same direction we've been moving all along: taking the effort out of every stage of going out, so the only thing people take home is the experience itself."