Bajrangi Bhaijaan (transl. Brother Bajrangi) is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Kabir Khan and written by him in conjunction with K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, Kausar Munir and Parveez Sheikh. Produced by Salman Khan and Rockline Venkatesh, it stars Salman, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and debutante Harshaali Malhotra in the lead roles, and tells the story of Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi, an ardent devotee of Hindu deity Hanuman, who embarks on a journey to take a mute six-year-old Pakistani Muslim girl Shahida, separated in India from her parents, back to her hometown in Pakistan.
Made on a budget of ₹90 crore (US$13 million), the principal photography commenced in November 2014. The cinematography was done by Aseem Mishra and was edited by Rameshwar S. Bhagat. Julius Packiam composed the film score while the songs featured in the film were composed by Pritam.
The film received wide acclaim from critics, and was a commercial success. It grossed ₹969 crore ($150 million) worldwide,[3][better source needed] and is currently the third highest-grossing Indian film and second highest-grossing Bollywood film. It won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment at the 63rd National Film Awards,[4] and was nominated for four awards at the 61st Filmfare Awards, including Best Film and Best Actor, and won the Filmfare Award for Best Story. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Film in China's 2015 Douban Film Awards.[5][6]
Plot
Amidst the hills of Sultanpur, a picturesque village in Pakistan, lives Shahida Aziz, named after Pakistani Cricketer, Shahid Afridi, a mute six-year-old girl, with her parents. After an accident in which she is unable to call for help because she is mute, her mother, Razia Aziz (Meher Vij), with able support from her husband Rauf Aziz (Mir Sarwar), decides to take her to the shrine of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, India via the Samjhauta Express, hoping it will restore her speech.
On its way back to Pakistan, the train stops for repairs and Shahida gets off to save a lamb while Razia is asleep. The train leaves before Shahida can re-board. Panicked, she boards a freight train, assuming it to be headed in the same direction, but instead goes reverse-path and winds up in Kurukshetra. During a celebration there, she meets Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi (Salman Khan), who is affectionately called "Bajrangi" by the locals. 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 (Sharat Saxena), where he is engaged to Dayanand's daughter, Rasika (Kareena Kapoor). 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, but shortly later, they are arrested under suspicions of Pawan 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 a victim of circumstances who is on a noble mission to reunite the mute Munni with her parents. Moved by his story, Nawab joins him in his journey to find Munni's parents. They encounter an Islamic religious scholar, Asad, 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. Meanwhile, Nawab's cameraman, Kamil Yusuf, is arrested by Inspector Aamir Qureshi and Senior Pakistani Police Officer Hamid Khan (Rajesh Sharma) when his efforts to escape fail miserably, and they bait him into tracing Nawab's location.
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, discovering in the process that Kamil is being scapegoated by the police to capture Pawan alive when he notices the team at a shrine. While reviewing the footage, Munni recognises Razia 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 find that the local officers have put up barricades to identify and catch "the Indian spy". Devising a plan to divert police attention, Pawan gets off the bus and runs toward the jungle in full view 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 Hamid 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 at Hamid's behest 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, who, also present in the crowd, runs toward the fence and after some effort, cries out Pawan's name get his attention. Pawan hears her voice, and the two run toward each other as they have a reunion with Pawan tossing Shahida high in the air.
Cast
- Salman Khan as Pawan 'Zero' Kumar Chaturvedi a.k.a. Bajrangi Bhaijaan, the titular protagonist who hails from a typical Indian Brahmin family in Pratapgarh[disambiguation needed] and has been living in Delhi since his father's death
- Harshaali Malhotra as Shahida 'Munni' Aziz, a mute Pakistani girl who gets lost in India only to bump into Pawan, who makes it his mission to take her back home. Munni, the name given to Shahida by Pawan, is derived from the song ‘Munni Badnaam Hui' from the film Dabangg, which also featured Salman Khan
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Chand Nawab, a Pakistani news reporter and Pawan's later ally. The name is based on a real-life Pakistani reporter with the same name.
- Kareena Kapoor as Rasika Pandey, Pawan's love interest and fiance
- Meher Vij as Razia Aziz, Shahida's mother
- Kushaal Pawar as Kamil Yusuf, Chand Nawab's cameraman who gets caught by the police to get information about Pawan and Nawab
- Mir Sarwar as Rauf Aziz, Shahida's father
- Kamlesh Gill in a special appearance as a passenger in the train with Razia & Shahida
- Om Puri as Maulana Azad, a religious scholar
- Sharat Saxena as Dayanand Pandey, Rasika's father
- Alka Kaushal as Sushila Pandey, Rasika's mother
- Adnan Sami in a special appearance as a singer in the song "Bhardo Jholi Meri"
- Rajesh Sharma as Hamid Khan, a Senior Pakistani police office
- Krunal Pandit as Vardhan; A travel agent in Delhi
- Mursaleen Qureshi as Boo Ali; A smuggler at India-Pakistan's border who helps Pawan and Munni to cross the border illegally
- Manoj Bakshi as Aamir Qureshi; A Police Inspector
- Harssh A. Singh as Shamsher Ali; a news channel head in Pakistan and Nawab's boss
- Yudhvir Dahiya as a reporter of NDTV
Production
Development
The film's co-writer K. V. Vijayendra Prasad stated that the idea of the film was inspired by the 1987 Telugu film Pasivadi Pranam, which itself is a remake of the Malayalam film Poovinu Puthiya Poonthennal (1986). Prasad also took inspiration from a story he heard about a Pakistani couple coming to India for their daughter's heart surgery.[7][8]
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 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.[9]
Principal Photography
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 the 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]
Music
A. R. Rahman was initially in talks to compose the music of the film,[24] however he did not sign the film. The music was then composed by Kabir Khan's usual collaborators, with Pritam composing the songs and Julius Packiam composing the score. The lyrics were written by Mayur Puri, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Neelesh Misra, Shabbir Ahmed, and Kausar Munir while Julius Packiam composed the score. The soundtrack of the movie become Super Hit. The Song "Bhar Do Jholi" one of the biggest hits of 2015 sang by Adnan Sami. The soundtrack album consists of eleven tracks, was released on 17 June 2015.[25] "Tu Chahiye and Selfie Le Le Re become chartbusters.
The film includes the qawwali "Bhar Do Jholi Meri Ya Muhammad" originally written by Purnam Allahabadi and composed and sung by the Sabri Brothers. The qawwali was revamped with the voice of Adnan Sami Khan. EMI Pakistan and Amjad Sabri heir to the Sabri Brothers, have called for legal action against the producers of the film and the qawwali in separate instances.[26][27]
Track listing
Release
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.[28][29] The film was also released in 50 countries outside India, on more than 700 screens.[30] Bajrangi Bhaijaan premiered at the 20th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) on 6 October 2015.[31]
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.[32] In December 2017, it was announced the film would release there in 2018.[33] Prior to the announcement, Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a cult following in China,[32] where it has an average rating of 8.6 out of 10 on the popular film site Douban, with over 70,000 votes.[34][33] It placed fourth on Douban's list of top foreign films of 2015.[6] 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.[33][34] 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] The film released in Japan on 18 January 2019,[39] with the title "バジュランギおじさんと、小さな迷子"[40] (Bajurangi ojisan to, chīsana maigo), which translates as "Uncle Bajrangi and a small lost
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