Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Amidst the hills of Sultanpur, a picturesque village in Pakistan, lives Shahida, a mute six-year-old, with her parents. After an accident in which she is unable to call for help because she is mute, her mother, Rasia, decides to take her to the shrine of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, India, hoping it will restore her speech.

On the way back home, the train stops for repairs and Shahida gets off to save a lamb while her mother is asleep. The train leaves before Shahida can re-board. Panicked, she boards a freight train and winds up in Kurukshetra. There, she meets Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi (Salman Khan), who is affectionately called Bajrangi. He is a devout Hindu Brahmin and an ardent devotee of Lord Hanuman. Pawan resides at the home of his father's friend, Dayanand Pandey, where he is engaged to Dayanand's daughter, Rasika (Kareena Kapoor Khan). He tries in vain to find out where Shahida lives. He starts calling her "Munni" and brings her home. Dayanand lets her stay, thinking she must be Brahmin. However, the family eventually learns that Munni is a Pakistani Muslim. An enraged Dayanand orders Pawan to have her sent to Pakistan through the Pakistani High Commission, but offices are closed due to protests. A local travel agent promises to take Munni to Pakistan without a passport but instead tries to sell her to a brothel, causing Pawan to become enraged. After rescuing her, he vows to take Munni home on his own despite not having a passport and visa.

Pawan and Munni are able to enter Pakistan under the border's fences. Pawan is arrested under suspicions of being an Indian spy. During interrogation, he escapes with Munni, and meets Chand Nawab (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a journalist who works for a Pakistani television channel. Nawab has been following Pawan's situation, thinking he is indeed an Indian spy, but discovers that Pawan is just a victim of circumstances. Moved by his story, Nawab joins him in his journey to find Munni's parents. They encounter an Islamic religious scholar who helps them avoid capture by police and directs the group to Azad Kashmir, after Munni recognises an area similar to her hometown in a calendar photo.

Nawab documents their journey on video, but his boss refuses to air it, thinking it's a useless story. Nawab uploads the video on YouTube. While reviewing the footage, Munni recognises her mother getting off a bus in the background. The trio go to the bus station and finally identify Sultanpur as Munni's hometown. They board a bus but are stopped by police who are looking for "the Indian spy". Devising a plan, Pawan gets off the bus and runs toward the jungle while Nawab and Munni escape on the other side. Pawan is captured and shot in the arm. Meanwhile, Nawab and Munni reach Sultanpur, where Munni is finally reunited with her parents.

The videos uploaded by Nawab go viral throughout India and Pakistan, emotionally moving many. A compassionate senior officer realises that Pawan is innocent after his story is verified, and has him released, defying his boss's order to keep him in jail. Nawab calls for support and thousands of Pakistanis and Indians congregate at Narowal Check Post, where Pawan is to return to India. As Pawan crosses the border, Nawab reveals that Munni's real name is Shahida. Shahida, also in the crowd, runs toward the fence and after some effort, cries out her first word: "Mama" (uncle) to get Pawan's attention. Pawan hears her voice, and the two run toward each other and embrace.

• Salman Khan as Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi, known also as Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a good-for-nothing but a pure-hearted devotee of Lord Hanuman, who tries to get Munni back to her home in Pakistan, Rasika's future husband.
• Harshaali Malhotra as Shahida " Munni" a mute girl from Pakistan who is lost in India. Bajrangi calls her Munni, as he does not know her name.
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Chand Nawab, a Pakistani reporter, who often fails to get news for channel he works for, and initially thinks of Bajrangi as a spy, but supports him when he finds out the truth. He is Bajrangi's helper to get Shahida reunited with her family. This character is based on a real life Pakistani Journalist with same name.
• Kareena Kapoor Khan as Rasika Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi / Rasika Pandey : Bajrangi's Future Wife and Dayanand's daughter, who motivates Bajrangi to take care of Munni
• Meher Vij as Rasia, Shahida's mother, who takes her daughter to the Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah in New Delhi hoping that she would gain her voice but ends up losing her in India, with authorities not allowing her to get back with her.
• Kushaal Pawar as Kamil Yusuf, Chand Nawab's cameraman, who is captured by the police to find whereabouts of Bajrangi, Chand Nawab, and Shahida as they suspect that Bajrangi is a spy
• Mir Sarwar as Rauf, Shahida's father
• Kamlesh Gill in a special appearance in the train to Delhi
• Om Puri in a special appearance as Maulana Asad, a religious scholar
• Sharat Saxena as Dayanand Pandey, Rasika's father
• Alka Kaushal as Rasika's mother
• Adnan Sami in a guest appearance in the song "Bhardo Jholi Meri"
• Rajesh Sharma as senior Pakistani Police Officer Hamid Khan
• Krunal Pandit as Vardhan, the travel agent in Delhi
• Mursaleen Qureshi as border agent Boo Ali
• Manoj Bakshi as Police Inspector Amir Qureshi
• Harssh A. Singh as Channel Head Shamsher Ali
• Yudhvir Dahiya as the NDTV reporter

Climax scene was shot at Thajiwas Glacier in Sonamarg, Jammu and Kashmir.

Kabir Khan noted that his script for Bajrangi Bhaijaan was influenced by some of his own experiences. He noted the influence of the Hindu epic Ramayana, which he used to watch Ramlila plays of as a child, and particularly the Hindu deity Bajrangi (Hanuman), who left a strong impression on him as a child. He felt that Bajrangi was a character who was loved by people all religious communities in India, including Hindus and Muslims in India, due to how Bajrangi brought joy and fun to many Indian children. Khan began writing Bajrangi Bhaijaan partly in response to the rise of religious sectarianism in India since the 1980s and particularly in response to the Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu fundamentalist organisation that appropriated Bajrangi for violent sectarian motives and played a central role in the deadly 2002 Gujarat riots, leading to the name Bajrangi having communal connotations. He began writing Bajrangi Bhaijaan in 2013 as a way of reclaiming Bajrangi for all communities, and as a way of bringing Hindus and Muslims together.[6] The film's co-writer K. V. Vijayendra Prasad stated in an interview that the film was inspired by various movies.[7][8] [9]

The principal photography began on 3 November 2014 in New Delhi, with Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan participating. The second filming schedule took place at the ND Studios, Karjat. The third schedule of the film was held in Mandawa, Rajasthan. On 7 January 2015, Khan was seen on the top of castle of Mandawa playing cricket with a young boy.[10] On 10 January 2015, Khan shot with school students in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district.[11] Shooting of the film was completed on 20 May. Some scenes of the film were shot at Khan's Panvel farm house.[12] Shooting also took place in the Kashmir Valley in places like Sonamarg and Zoji La.[13][14][15][16] The film's climax was shot at Sonmarg near the Thajiwas glacier (at 10,000 ft above sea level) with around 7,000 people.[17][18][19] Nawazuddin Siddiqui's character Chand Nawab was inspired by a real character Chand Nawab, who was with Karachi-based Indus News in 2008.[20][21][22][23]

The soundtrack of the album is composed by Pritam with lyrics written by Mayur Puri, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Neelesh Misra, Shabbir Ahmed, and Kausar Munir. The soundtrack album consists of eleven tracks, was released on 17 June 2015.[24]

The film includes the qawwali "Bhardo Jholi Meri Ya Muhammad" sung by the Sabri Brothers. The qawwali was revamped with the voice of Adnan Sami Khan. EMI Pakistan and Amjad Sabri qawwal, heir to the Sabri brothers, have called for legal action against the producers of the film and the qawwali in separate instances.[25][26]

Bajrangi Bhaijaan was released on 17 July 2015, one day before Eid, on 4,500 screens in India and 1,000 screens in overseas respectively.[27][28] The film was also released in 50 countries outside India, on more than 700 screens.[29] Bajrangi Bhaijaan premiered at the 20th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) on 6 October 2015.[30]

In November 2017, it was announced that Bajrangi Bhaijaan was set to release in China, following the success of Aamir Khan's Dangal (2016) in the country.[31] In December 2017, it was announced the film would release there in 2018.[32] Prior to the announcement, Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a cult following in China,[31] where it has an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 on the popular film site Douban, with over 70,000 votes.[33][32] It placed fourth on Douban's list of top foreign movies of 2015.[34] Bajrangi Bhaijaan will be released in China under the title 小萝莉的猴神大叔 which roughly translates as "Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle"; "monkey god" is a rough translation of "Bajrangi" while "little lolita" and "uncle" reference the characters. The Chinese version will also be cut down in length to 140 minutes.[32][33] The film released in China on 2 March 2018.[35] In January 2018, it was announced that the film will be getting a wide release, on 8,000 screens in China, building on the Chinese box office success of Aamir Khan's Dangal and Secret Superstar (2017), and Bajrangi Bhaijaan's positive word-of-mouth.[36] On 6 February 2018, the film had advance screenings in 29 Chinese cities, receiving a positive reception from audiences.[37] It also had a limited preview on 25 February 2018.[38] The film's China premiere on 27 February 2018 was attended by Kabir Khan and Harshali Malhotra. Its release date of 2 March 2018 marks the Lantern Festival, which celebrates families coming together.[39]

It was released in Turkey on 17 August 2018 on 190 screens. In the first weekend it grossed approx $89,796 with a spectator count of 8,389. The film released in Japan on 18 January 2019,[40] with the title "バジュランギおじさんと、小さな迷子"[41] (Bajurangi ojisan to, chīsana maigo), which translates as "Uncle Bajrangi and a small lost child".[42]

The film holds a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews from fourteen English-language critics, as of May 2019.[43] The film received similarly positive reviews from Chinese critics. Several critics in China, where it was released as Little Lolita's Monkey Uncle, noted narrative parallels to the Chinese epic Journey to the West and its monkey-king hero Sun Wukong (which in turn have similarities to the Indian epic Ramayana and its monkey-god hero Hanuman), making the film relatable to Chinese audiences.[44] In January 2019, upon release in Japan, it was the week's highest-rated film on the Filmarks audience satisfaction survey.[45]

Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed ₹333 crore (US$47 million) worldwide in its first week,[46] beating the previous record of ₹332 crore (US$47 million) worldwide by PK. The film went on to net ₹3.15 billion (US$44 million) and ₹4.26 billion (US$60 million) gross[47] in India[48][49] and grossed ₹1.792 billion (US$25 million) overseas for a worldwide gross of ₹6.03 billion (US$85 million) in 31 days.[47][50] Bajrangi Bhaijaan became the quickest film to collect ₹1 billion (US$14 million)[51] and ₹2 billion (US$28 million) net domestically beating PK and Dhoom 3.[52] The distributor share of the film had crossed ₹150 crore (US$21 million) crore which is a record in India being the second film to do so after PK.[49][53] In August 2015, Eros International said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange that Bajrangi Bhaijaan has become the fastest Bollywood film to gross ₹500 crore (US$70 million) worldwide, while it crossed ₹300 crore (US$42 million) at the domestic box office.[54][55]

The film is the highest nett grosser ever in Delhi / UP, CP Berar, CI, Bihar, Assam and Orissa, East Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal beating the lifetime collections of PK and Dhoom 3. The footfalls of the film crossed 35.2 million after five weeks, making it the most watched film in India since Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) and beating PK, 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham....[47][56][57] Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed ₹626 crore (US$88 million) worldwide at the end of its 7th week.[58] The domestic Indian gross for the film was ₹433 crore (US$61 million) as of August 2015,[59] while its overseas gross was US$30.9million[60] (₹211.05crore)[61] as of 2017. It was one of the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time, behind PK.[62] Prior to its China release, Bajrangi Bhaijaan's worldwide gross was ₹626 crore (US$10 million) as of 27 February 2018.[63] After 22 days at the Chinese box office, it became the fourth Indian film to gross ₹900 crore (US$140 million) worldwide, after Dangal, Baahubali 2, and Secret Superstar.[64][65] As of today, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the third highest-grossing Indian film ever worldwide.[66] The film was marketed by a Mumbai-based company named Spice PR owned by Prabhat Choudhary.[67]

Kabir Khan (top) and Salman Khan (bottom) received several awards and nominations for their direction and acting/producing respectively

Winner

Nominated

• Bollywood 100 Crore Club
• List of highest-grossing Bollywood films
• List of Bollywood highest-grossing films in overseas markets

• Bajrangi Bhaijaan on IMDb
• Bajrangi Bhaijaan at Rotten Tomatoes
• Bajrangi Bhaijaan at Box Office Mojo