Dilwale (2015 film)

Dilwale (transl. Big-hearted) is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy action film directed by Rohit Shetty, who co-produced the film with Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment and Rohit Shetty Productions. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, and Kriti Sanon, alongside Pankaj Tripathi, Mukesh Tiwari, Varun Sharma, Boman Irani, Vinod Khanna, Kabir Bedi and Johnny Lever. The film marks the final appearance of Vinod Khanna, before his death on 27 April 2017.

Dilwale was released theatrically worldwide on 18 December 2015, a week prior to the Christmas period. The film became a commercial success, earning over ₹376.85 crore (US$58.74 million) worldwide and becoming the thirteenth highest-grossing Indian film overseas. At the 61st Filmfare Awards, Dilwale received 5 nominations, including Best Actor (Khan) and Best Actress (Kajol). The film marks the seventh collaboration between Khan and Kajol since last seen together in My Name Is Khan (2010) and the first collaboration between Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon.

Plot

2015: Veer Bakshi and Raj Bakshi are brothers working as car tuners in Panaji. Veer helps Ishita and damages the car of a customer in the process. To discipline him, Raj makes Veer fix the car at night. Veer falls asleep while fixing the car and wakes up to find that the car's sound system has been stolen. Veer soon gets into a tussle with "King", a drug baron, whose henchmen threatened Ishita, he is injured and gets admitted to the hospital. Raj learns about this and thrashes the gang members, with the help of his friends Shakti and Anwar. Raj burns their stash and reveals himself as "Kaali". King suspects Raj to be Kaali due to the tussle between King and Veer. However, Raj's humbleness convinces King that he is harmless and makes a deal to fix their car in exchange for their safety and protection.

2000: In Sofia, Kaali and Veer are sons of Randhir Bakshi, a crime boss. Kaali comes across Meera during one of their chases with Randhir's rival Dev Narayan Malik. Kaali falls in love with her and the two begin to spend time with each other. During a shipment delivery to Randhir, Kaali gets attacked by Dev's henchmen and Meera reveals herself as Malik's daughter. Meera spares Kaali's life as it was her birthday. Kaali confronts Meera, chases her car and saves her life when she almost falls off a cliff. Overcome by remorse, Meera declares her love for Kaali, who eventually forgives her. Kaali and Meera reveal their relationship to Randhir and Dev, who agree to meet each other. However, Dev tries to kill Kaali and his father in a shootout. Dev and Randhir end up shooting each other to death. Meera sees Kaali holding a gun next to Dev and assumes that Kaali has betrayed her, where she shoots him. Kaali survives and is convinced by Shakti and Anwar to forget about the past and start a new life with his brother Veer, while Meera also starts a new life.

2015: Veer discovers that his friend Siddhu was the thief who stole the car's parts and had been giving them to his boss Oscar, but spares him as Siddhu reveals that he did this for his girlfriend Jenny. Veer proposes to Ishita. Raj learns about their relationship and decides to meet Ishita's sister, who is actually Meera. Upon meeting Raj, Meera immediately forbids Ishita from meeting Veer again. Veer and Ishita try to figure out why their siblings dislike each other so much, so Veer and Siddhu try to confront Shakti (Siddhu's brother) and Anwar. Veer and Ishita scheme together to rekindle Raj and Meera's relationship. Raj's lieutenant Mani steals one of King's cars and brings it to the shop. Veer, Mani and Siddhu discover drugs in the car's decklid and burn them.

Upon realising Ishita loves Veer deeply, Meera issues an ultimatum that Veer must move in with Meera in order to marry Ishita, leaving Raj in the process. Enraged, Veer proceeds to storm out and Meera reveals to Veer that Raj is actually Randhir's adopted son and not Veer's biological brother. Raj confirms this and embraces Veer. Raj confronts Meera for trying to ruin his relationship with his brother, where he reveals that he never betrayed her. Malik's right hand man Raghav meets Meera and confirms Raj's innocence. Meera takes Ishita to Raj's house, declaring that Veer can live with Raj and Ishita after marriage and Meera apologises to Raj.

At Siddhu and Jenny's wedding in a church, King finds his car, which is being used as a wedding car, and brings Mani, Oscar and Veer, demanding to know about his drugs. King loses his temper after learning what happened and a fight ensues in which Raj reveals himself as Kaali and thrashes King. King tries to kill Raj, but Meera takes the bullet and King is beaten up by Raj's friends. Meera is admitted to the hospital, where she recovers and reunites with Raj.

Cast

Production

Development

In January 2015, Rohit Shetty announced a project with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead which would be their second collaboration after the 2013 film Chennai Express. Shetty stated that he would start filming in March 2015. Shetty paired actress Kajol with Khan, making it the seventh time they were cast opposite each other. He also signed actor Varun Dhawan who was reportedly playing Khan's brother, while actress Kriti Sanon was signed opposite him and Kajol's sister.

Filming

Principal photography began on 20 March 2015 with Dhawan in Goa. Khan and Kajol first joined the crew for filming in Bulgaria from June 2015. Later that month, the first song from the film was shot on Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, in Bulgaria. The schedule there was wrapped up by late July. In August 2015, a romantic song featuring the lead pair was shot in Iceland. The entire team then left for Hyderabad in early September to shoot what was touted to be the final schedule of filming. However, the work in Hyderabad was completed by late October, and filming officially came to an end with a brief schedule in Goa, the same location where it was started. In December, after the promotions had commenced, another song was shot in haste. It featured all four lead actors and had to be played simultaneously with the end-credits.

Release

Theatrical

Dilwale was released in the United Arab Emirates a day before its worldwide release on 18 December 2015. The film was released in around 3100 screens in India.

On 14 December 2015, in the United Kingdom, the film received a 12A classification from the British Board of Film Classification for "moderate violence". The film's UK distributor chose to remove thirteen seconds to obtain this rating (the excised material being scenes involving stronger violence than possible for a 12A rating). An uncut 15-rated version is available.

Home media

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sony Pictures Networks as part of a deal worth ₹2.2 billion (US$34.29 million).

Reception

Box office

Dilwale made around ₹130 crore (US$20.26 million) worldwide in its opening weekend, the third highest of the year.

India

The film, releasing alongside Bajirao Mastani, opened number one at the box office, and collected ₹210 million (US$3.27 million) nett in India on its opening day, the third highest of the year after Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The film showed little drop on its second day, and earned nearly ₹200 million (US$3.12 million) nett. On its first Sunday, Dilwale took in approximately ₹230 million (US$3.59 million) nett, bringing the three-day nett to an estimated ₹640 million (US$9.98 million). Dilwale had a first week of ₹970 million (US$15.12 million) nett in the domestic market.

The film earned around ₹210 million (US$3.27 million) nett in its second weekend. It grossed little over ₹310 million (US$4.83 million) nett in week two, taking its business to ₹1.27 billion (US$19.8 million) nett. The film made around ₹110 million (US$1.71 million) nett more in the third week.

Khan expressed disappointment with the film's domestic performance in India. Kajol was also reportedly disappointed, with reports claiming that she regretted turning down the lead role in a Sujoy Ghosh film in favour of Dilwale.

Other territories

Dilwale had the highest opening of 2015 abroad and the second highest ever, with a weekend gross of around $8.5 million. The film also set an all-time record opening in the Persian Gulf region. In Pakistan, the film earned ₹65 million (US$1.01 million) in its first three days. The film collected ₹9.13 crore in Pakistan in the first week. The film went on to earn over $13 million overseas in the first week, again the highest of the year.