Prem Ratan Dhan Payo

<p>Yuvraj Vijay Singh, a wealthy crown prince of Pritampur is soon to be crowned King. He’s engaged to Rajkumari Maithili Devi, a princess of the royal family of the neighbouring kingdom Devgarh. However, due to his stiff, stubborn nature, Vijay faces many issues with Maithili and his siblings. His rich half-sisters, Rajkumari Chandrika and Rajkumari Radhika, live in a separate rented bungalow outside the royal palace with Chandrika working as an accounts head in a municipal school, and have filed a case against Vijay for a share in the royal property, because they felt their mother (a poet and later mistress to the late King) was wronged by the Queen when she disgraced her in the presence of all of the King’s children. Furthermore, Chandrika and Maithili, who were best friends during school times, find their friendship shattered owing to her engagement with Vijay. Similarly, his half brother Yuvraj Ajay Singh vows vengeance and has been wanting to kill him and take the crown for himself. He enlists the help of his manager Chirag Singh and Vijay’s secretary Sameera. Chirag misguidings Ajay at every step while betraying him behind his back. Vijay barely escapes an assassination plan coordinated by Ajay and Chirag to kill him but is badly injured. He is hidden in a secret chamber maintained by two doctors. Meanwhile, Vijay’s doppelganger Prem Raghuvanshi aka Prem Dilwale, a love guru, a perky, lively and carefree stage actor who falls in love with Princess Maithili, reaches Pritampur to meet her along with his friend Kanhaiya. At a bus stop, the Security Head of Pritampur Palace, Sanjay, notices him by chance and takes him to Diwan Sahab. Upon witnessing the striking resemblance between Prem and Yuvraj Vijay, Diwan asks Prem to take Yuvraj Vijay’s place while Yuvraj recovers from coma. Prem acts as Yuvraj Vijay but with his simple, caring nature, he impresses Maithili who earlier wanted to break up with Vijay and falls in love with Prem unknowingly. Prem also attempts to reconcile with Vijay’s sisters by bringing them back to the royal palace; he prepares legal documents handing over all of the royal family’s properties to them. His half-sisters are so moved by this gesture that, with a little push from Maithili, they eventually have a change of heart and decline to deprive the prince of his fortune and reconcile with him as his sisters. Meanwhile, Yuvraj Ajay and Chirag find out that Prem is only playing the part of the prince and thus they kidnap the real Vijay. Chirag decides to double cross Ajay, as he frees Vijay and feeds him false information to pit him against Ajay and Prem. Vijay and Ajay get involved in a sword fight when Prem and Kanhaiya intervene and clear the confusion. Chirag tries to shoot them down but falls to his death. Ajay regrets his deeds and Vijay reconciles with him. Maithili is shocked to know the truth about Prem not being Yuvraj Vijay after Prem has left to return to his home and is left heartbroken. In the end, the royal family reaches Prem’s house to reunite Prem and Maithili, and they happily marry along with Kanhaiyya and Sameera. It was announced in June 2013 by and and pre-production work of the film began in January 2014 until June 2014. It was titled and later changed to , inspired by the well-known Hindu hymn ” ” of . , and Sanjay Sankala roped as a music composer, cinematographer and editor in the film. Initially, , , , and were rumoured to play leading ladies but they turned down the offer. Finally, was signed on to play a leading lady in this film which marked her second film with Khan after 2007 film , helmed by . , , , , and were signed on to play supporting characters. was considered to play Khan’s half-sister and her role went to Bhaskar. Previously, Rao acted in . Filming began after 1000 days of preparation on 26 June 2014 and wrapped on 2 September 2015 after 200 days of shoot. It was shot in , , , and . It was shot at several extravagant locations across India. From grand sets to elaborate costumes, was undeniably a visual delight for all the viewers. The makers of the film released a ‘behind-the-scene’ video from the film titled ‘Larger Than Life’, wherein they revealed that the royal palace of Pritampur in the film is ‘one of the biggest sets ever made’ which was spread around 100,000 sq. feet. Each actor from the film is also heard speaking about the lavish scale of the film with each shot being ‘grand’. Production Designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai said that “An attempt to give life to each element has been made. was released worldwide on 12 November 2015, coinciding with season, in alongside and dubbed version with the Tamil version titled as ( ) and Telugu version titled as ( ). Taran Adarsh of gave the film 4.5/5 stating that “On the whole, PRDP is the perfect Diwali entertainer for the entire family. The film will win abundant love [prem], while its investors will reap a harvest [dhan], making it a memorable Diwali for all concerned.” Srijana Mitra Das of rated the film with 3.5/5 stars stating that PRDP is Salman Khan’s triumph and he ” simply blows the top off the theatres with a double role that makes you laugh, gasp, sigh – and cry.” She also appreciated the performance of , , Aashika Bhatia and . Sonia Chopra of gave 3/5 stars rating saying that the film has its faults, but with actor ‘s dual role, the movie is sure to hit the right spots with the family audience. of gave the film a rating of 3/5 stars saying that the director employed the same successful formula he had tried in his previous films, but now “the tropes have gotten rusty, the emotions seldom feel genuine, and the writing is strictly surface level”. He concluded that the film’s only saving grace is the presence of who is in good form. Shubhra Gupta of gave the film a low rating of 1.5/5 stars, calling it a re-imagining of Ramayan and its million stories, criticizing it as “an out-dated, overblown rehash of the director’s previous films”, while Rohit Vats of gave the film only 2/5 stars, calling it “as a film straight out of the ’80s” rehashing the director’s same formula, but appreciated music director and lead actor as “quite likeable and his comic timing has gotten better”. Anna MM Vetticad of thrashed the film as “half-baked, lifeless, low-IQ film with its juvenile humour and family politics that resembles circumstances in the cheapest saas-bahu soaps now running on Hindi fiction TV.” and “lacks even the few qualities that made his earlier ventures bearable”. Sukanya Verma of rated the film a 2.5/5 stars stating, “PRDP sticks to its beliefs on sibling affection, family values and coy courtship and takes a lengthy route to assert so. Yet it is not the predictability but the lop-sided sentimentality of the director’s narrative that hurts PRDP’s intentions the most.” She criticized the director for recycling “men versus women sporting contests, midnight kitchen rendezvous and the pristine aura of Prem”, but appreciated the performance of even though it never matched his previous act. The gross collections of the film was (US$6.5 million) on the first day, which is highest in India. The film grossed (US$6.9 million) in Mumbai circuit alone from its first week and earned second-highest first week gross in that circuit after . The soundtrack features 10 songs, composed by and lyrics were written by . While composed the for the film. acquired the music rights of the film at a cost of (US$2.0 million), which was the biggest music deal for any Bollywood film till that date. The first song, “Prem Leela” was released as a single on October 7, 2015. The full was released on 10 October 2015. An official game titled , based on this film has been released by , for Android mobile phone users.</p>