Indian star Kartik Aaryan is back in the game and his latest film – Satyaprem Ki Katha – saw an impressive opening on Thursday, June 29. Released across 2000 screens in India, the film made $1.1 million nett collections in India and earned $1.5 million globally. It is his third best opening ever after Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Love Aaj Kal.
Having crossed $1 million, Satyaprem Ki Katha is now the sixth highest opener for a Hindi film in 2023 in India. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan and Prabhas-starrer Adipurush rank at the top two slots as highest Hindi openers for the year. Salman Khan’s Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, Ranbir Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar and Ajay Devgn’s Bholaa are ranked third, fourth, and fifth on the list.
Made on an estimated budget of $8 million, Satyaprem Ki Katha needs to register a steep hike over the weekend and maintain a good pace over the week. Given the response – critically and otherwise – Satyaprem Ki Katha has all the chances to make an impressive collection by the end of the first week.
Aaryan reunites with his Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 co-star Kiara Advani for the film that also stars Gajraj Rao, Supriya Pathak, Siddharth Randheria, Anooradha Patel, Rajpal Yadav, Nirrmite Saawaant and Shikha Talsania. Rao and Pathak play Aaryan’s parents in the film while Talsania essays the role of his younger sister. Patel and Randeria are Advani’s onscreen parents.
Directed by Sameer Vidhwans, Satyaprem Ki Katha is a movie that addresses a social issue while wrapping the message in a typically Bollywood family entertainer. The film often falters, but also stays true to the high ambitions of raising a social issue that is rarely talked about, in Hindi movies, while entertaining the audience.
The Gujarati set-up, milleu and language of the characters appear mostly right – we may notice only a few goof-ups with the language and the accent. Not a rare scenario in that culture, but it is still delightful to watch the menfolk managing all the household chores in a traditional and middle-class family. However, I could not feel the same joy watching the women in this house – they earned the household income alright, but they also walk around with a sense of entitlement that rendered the men beneath them.
If a film with financially-independant women and men who fulfil the responsibilities of housekeeping is a social statement, so is having sensitive and compassionate women characters. Satyaprem Ki Katha almost promotes the centuries-old notion that independant women have less compassion and rarely care for their families.
The journey of Satyaprem Ki Katha has not been a smooth one. The film was originally named Satyanarayan Ki Katha but the filmmakers had to change the title last year after several factions objected to it. Satyanarayan is a Hindu God, and ‘Satyanarayan Ki Katha’ is a common religious function wherein the story of the God is narrated infront of a devotional gathering. Some people did not like the idea of a God’s name being associated with a Bollywood movie that does not talk about the God.
Earlier this year, the producers of the film faced yet another wave of backlash when they released a new version of the Pakistani hit song Pasoori. Originally sung by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill, Pasoori was Google’s most-searched song in 2022. Bollywood singers Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar have sung the new version for Satyaprem Ki Katha.
Ahead of the film’s release, Gill urged fans to avoid “sending hate” to the artists if they did not like the new version. Gill added that she does not hold the rights to the song, and therefore had no clue about Pasoori remake untill her fans talked about it online.
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