<p>A nude lands on Earth on a research mission in , India, and is stranded when the remote control to summon his spaceship is stolen. In Belgium, an Indian woman, Jagat “Jaggu” Janani Sahni, meets a Pakistani man, Sarfaraz Yousuf, and falls in love with him. Her father objects to their relationship, citing their different religions, and consults their family astrologer, Tapasvi Maharaj, who predicts Sarfaraz will betray Jaggu. Determined to prove them wrong, Jaggu asks Sarfaraz to marry her, only to be heartbroken after receiving an unsigned letter calling off their wedding and not to contact him. Jaggu returns to India and becomes a journalist. She is intrigued after finding the alien distributing pamphlets about a “missing” God. She earns his trust by rescuing him when he attempts to take money from a temple’s donation box as a “refund” for God’s broken promises, and he opens up to her. He stole clothes and money from a couple having sex in a car and befriended a bandmaster, Bhairon Singh. He learned at a brothel by holding hands and exchanging memories with a prostitute and started looking for the thief who stole his remote in , where he earned the name “PK” (drunk) as people thought he was intoxicated when getting confused with different religions. When told only God can help him, he began practising many Indian religions, including , , and , attempting to find “God” to no avail. He found out Tapasvi had his remote but refused to return it, claiming it was a gift from God. Believing his story after a brief hesitation, Jaggu promises to help PK. After Jaggu pranks an unknown caller in front of him, PK naively conjectures Tapasvi and his other godmen must be unintentionally dialing a “wrong number” to communicate with God, advising the public against engaging in meaningless rituals for their prayers. Intrigued, Jaggu encourages the public to expose by sending their videos to her news channel. Gradually, this “wrong number” campaign turns into a popular mass movement, much to the dismay of Tapasvi. Meanwhile, Bhairon finds the thief in Rajasthan and informs PK that he sold the remote to Tapasvi. PK realises Tapasvi was a fraud all along, intentionally misleading people. Bhairon and the thief are later killed in a terrorist attack. Tapasvi confronts PK on air, asking him what the “right number” is. PK claims people should believe in the “real” God that created them instead of other fraudulent godmen and their “duplicate” God. Tapasvi claims he has a direct connection to “God”, citing his prediction of Sarfaraz’s betrayal to prove Muslims to be liars. Having absorbed Jaggu’s memories earlier, PK claims he can disprove his prediction and reveals Sarfaraz had not written the letter to Jaggu, citing the presence of another bride as a possible recipient that day. Shocked, Jaggu contacts the in Belgium, where Sarfaraz worked part-time, and learns Sarfaraz has been awaiting her call for a long time, proving he still loves her. It is revealed that Sarfaraz had found the same letter that day and, believing it to be from Jaggu, stopped contacting her. Jaggu and Sarfaraz tearfully reconnect while Jaggu’s father realises Tapasvi’s true colours, and forces him to return the remote to PK. PK is able to return to his planet with his remote. When leaving, he takes two suitcases full of audio tapes, having filled them with recordings of Jaggu’s voice. PK tells Jaggu that the recordings are of sounds from earth. However, Jaggu finds out that the tapes are actually of their conversations. She also finds the love note PK wrote for her earlier, realising his love for her, but reluctance to confess due to her feelings for Sarfaraz. She chooses not to confront PK directly and tearfully watches him walk towards his spaceship. After his departure, Jaggu publishes a book about PK, grateful for her experience with him. A year later, PK returns to Earth on a new research mission on human nature with more members of his species. “PK” was the only film which began with a desire to say something. I can’t say what that thing is. The battle was the other way round—how do you say such a serious thing in an entertaining way? For many years, we were struggling, until we finally found a way, where it will be entertaining, won’t be offensive—will hit the right notes, basically. After the success of , director Rajkumar Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi started work for their next project. They had written a story about a character who had the ability to get into another person’s mind to make that person a better human being. They spent one year to write a story, but it turned out to be similar to (2010). After watching , Hirani and Joshi were shocked by the similarities. Eventually, they decided to scrap the film, then Hirani and Joshi reworked on the script, changing the entire tone and angle. It took five years to make the film and three years to write it. In , Khan played nine avatars (costume changes) and, during the course of the film, the actor had to chew over 10,000 preparations called . Betelnut is a psychoactive stimulant used throughout Asia and characterised by its ability to stain users’ mouths red. “In real life is not a habit, I have it once in a while but for this film I chew for every scene. I would at times eat about 100 in a day. We had a [a maker] on the sets,” said Khan in the report. For every take, Khan had to eat a fresh to fill his mouth. Before beginning the shoot, he would eat at least 10–15 to get the right color inside his mouth and on his lips. Viral Thakkar was the visual effects supervisor. The visual effects company was Riva Digital at a point employing 100 artists working on the film. In 2011, Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma signed on for the film. Khan’s nephew and were considered for a role which eventually went to before the release of his debut movie (2013). Earlier reports said that Rajkumar Hirani had signed for the film when it was reported that Arshad will be playing an important role. In 2013, Warsi said in an interview “I couldn’t have worked out on dates. I wouldn’t refuse Raju for anything. In fact, when he offered me the film, I did not even ask for the script, I was like I am ready to come on whenever you want. So that is the connection I share with Raju.” Before Rajput and Warsi were signed on, and were said to be cast in the film. Junaid Khan, son of Aamir Khan worked as an assistant director in this film. In 2011, in its initial scripting stage, Hirani named the film , then changed it to which he loved, but later on came to know that was already in production (released in 2012). He dropped the idea and, after many titles, he came up with a title that only had initials, . After starting the film, Hirani felt was not a good enough title. He decided to change the title to . But after a few weeks of shooting, Hirani decided to go back to the original title. compared to Hirani and Khan’s previous collaboration , as they both involve “A socially awkward and ‘different’ young man—who walks and talks in a strange, enthusiastic childlike manner—observes the system, questions it, asks you to look at the many ludicrous things that inform it, and eventually brings about a minor revolution.” In an interview, Rajkumar Hirani revealed that initially, the plot involved the alien protagonist falling in love with a girl early on, which led him to question religious divisions when he encountered her father’s prejudice. He used his powers to change the father’s mindset. However, after watching , Hirani realized the concept was too similar and scrapped the original second half. The filmmakers also decided against a storyline involving a case against God, as it closely resembled the play , which was being adapted into a film ( ). Ultimately, focused on promoting communal harmony, with both films exploring similar themes but through different approaches. According to Hirani, is a “satire on Hindu gods and their godmen”. The co-director Khan began looking for shooting locations in July 2012. Second unit filming was set to begin in late 2012, which was stalled after the rumoured departure of three department heads for the film and bad weather stalling initial shoots. Hirani denied rumours that the film would be delayed, stating that principal filming had always been intended to begin in mid-January 2013 in Delhi and Rajasthan to “capture the winter of Delhi”. Shooting officially began on 1 February 2013, with the filming scheduled to occur over a 45-day period. A one-week schedule of shooting of was in June 2013 in , Belgium. A 26-day schedule of shooting of started in Delhi from 27 September 2013. The film was marketed by a Mumbai Based company named Spice PR owned by Prabhat Choudhary. The makers released a teaser trailer on 23 October 2014. It achieved 3.4 million views on YouTube within five days, subsequently receiving 12 million views. It was regarded as the most viewed movie trailers on . The teaser was attached with the film (2014). In August, the makers found a new promotional strategy to interact with the audiences by introducing talking standees. This was the first time a Bollywood film used a talking standee at varied locations as a part of its promotions. The standee had Khan talking to people in a prominent places in popular and . On 7 December 2014, Khan began the city tour for promotions with Patna. The character he plays speaks in Bhojpuri which is the main language used for communication in Bihar. Aamir said at the event “I have decided to launch the promotional campaign of my film from Bihar to connect with the language. My character speaks Bhojpuri in the film.” Hence, the actor decided to start his promotional schedule from Bihar. Although he wanted to visit Bhojpur, which is 60 kilometres from Bihar, he could not because of security issues. In Bihar he visited a litti chokha stall. The visit resulted in a surge of customers to the shop, and the shop owner put up pictures of Khan eating the local delicacy. Then the crew proceeded to Varanasi where they had a screening of their film and interacted with the people. Khan made an impromptu visit to Krishana Paan shop to savour a Banarasi pan. The actor specially removed time from his schedule to visit this place. He enjoyed a “mitha banarasi paan” there. After the crew visited Delhi, Ahemdabad, Raipur, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Indore, Bangalore and other locations in India. Aamir and makers also promoted the film in Dubai. , a part of ‘s , announced the launch of the official mobile game ‘PK’ based on the film. On 14 December 2014, , , , , , managing director of and Sameer Ganapathy, VP and head, Interactive of Disney India launched the game at the Reliance Digital Store in Juhu amidst much fanfare. The game was developed for both feature phones and smartphones. It was launched on , and . In the game, the player gets to don many avatars of Aamir Khan as seen in the movie, along with a special avatar of Anushka Sharma, as he embarks upon an exciting endless running adventure. Set against an Indian background, the gamer runs amidst the by-lanes of Delhi, railway tracks in a desert (as seen in the movie), and collect a maximum number of paans (as PK is seen enjoying eating paan in the movie). The gamer has to avoid a number of obstacles on the way, which include cows, buses, Delhi trains, rickshaws, traffic jams, and more. The backdrops in the game give the player the feel of the movie. was earlier scheduled to release on 6 June 2014. The director (who is also editor of the film), , wanted to spend more time editing. Besides, some portions with Sanjay Dutt were yet to be shot. Also, the second season of was to kick off from March. So Aamir Khan was not sure if he would be able to promote in June. Hence the makers settled for a December release. was released on 19 December 2014, as the 200th . The release was later expanded to 6000 screens worldwide, which included 5200 screens in India and 844 screens overseas. was initially released in 4844 screens worldwide. has been made tax-free in and . is the widest Indian movie released in the UK (198 screens), Pakistan (over 70 screens), Australia (35 screens) and outside of India (844 screens in over 40 overseas markets). was released theatrically in on 22 May 2015 across 4,600 screens. It had a dubbed version, with voicing Khan’s role. The film was released in and on 3 September 2015, and in on 29 October 2016. reported rumours of a deal in which the satellite rights were sold for (US$13.93 million) to if the domestic business reached 3 billion net. The music rights were sold for (US$2.46 million). reported, “Being the first film to use Rentrak, Khan has taken the first initiative to bring in a paradigm shift from the usual norms followed in Bollywood. He had clearly enforced the idea of Rentrak to be brought in to bring more accuracy when it comes to box office figures.” was renewed by on 20 June 2025. The soundtrack is composed by , and with lyrics written by , Amitabh Varma and Manoj Muntashir. The song “Tharki Chokro” is the first single, released on 24 October 2014. The video focuses on and , with the song sung by and composed by Ajay–Atul with lyrics penned by Swanand Kirkire. The second single, “Love Is a Waste of Time”, which pictured Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma, was released on 31 October 2014 on YouTube. The song is sung by and , composed by Shantanu Moitra with the lyrics of Amitabh Varma. ” ” was released on 2 November 2014 on the T-Series YouTube. The song is sung by and Shreya Ghoshal, composed by Shantanu Moitra with lyrics by Swanand Kirkire. The full soundtrack was released on 5 November 2014. Srijana Mitra Das of gave the movie 4 stars out of 5. Rajeev Masand of gave 3.5 stars quoting “It’s a courageous film that sticks to Hirani’s well-oiled formula”. gave 5 stars calling it ” is a winner all the way, a film that , and would have been proud of had they been alive. Hirani is without a doubt their most worthy standard-bearer.” described it as “a solid entertainer that will surely entertain the masses and classes alike” and gave 4.5 out of 5 stars. of gave 4 out of 5 stars and called it “a triumph” and argued that Khan “soars high”. However, Sukanya Verma of the same publication called the film “a mixed bag of spunk and sentimentality”, while still giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Rohit Vats of gave 4 out of 5 stars and said “Khan steals the show with his performance”. Rohit Khilnani of gave 4.5 stars, and said “Go watch the film & watch it ASAP!” Edmund Lee of gave 3.5 stars. In Japan, Yuri Wakabayashi of gave the film a positive review in 2016. In 2019, ranked Khan’s performance among the 100 best in Indian film for the past decade. had its box office figures tracked by , a United States–based company that specialises in audience measurements. became the first Bollywood film to earn (US$16.39 million) net from online bookings. grossed 183.09 (US$28.955 million) worldwide in its first week. It became the highest-grossing Indian film, in both domestic as well as international markets. The film’s final worldwide gross was 753.36 crore (US$118.92 million). It was the 71st highest-grossing film of 2014. was the first Indian film to gross more than 7 billion and 100 million worldwide. earned net on its opening day. It showed growth on its second day, earning around net. On its third day, the film brought in net, bringing its weekend take to net. had the highest collections for a Hindi film on its first Monday, earning around net. Over the next two days it grossed and net respectively, taking its total to . On Christmas Day the film earned net, taking its first week total to net. On its second Friday, brought in around net. The film kept growing in its second weekend, earning on Saturday and on Sunday, taking the weekend total to net. It earned on its second Monday, on Tuesday and on Wednesday. With this, the film took its total to around net and became the in just 13 days. The film set a record second week figure of , taking its total to net. made an all-time record in the Mumbai circuit by grossing there more than net. The film netted around in its third weekend, reaching net in seventeen days. went on to net in India and grossed overseas for a worldwide gross of in three weeks. The film earned a final domestic gross of (US$73.53 million), including a domestic net of . The film opened in 22 international markets during its opening weekend (19–21 December) and grossed $28.7 million, placing it at No. 3 at the worldwide box office behind and . In North America, it set an opening weekend record for an Indian film collecting $3.75 million and placing at No. 10 at the box office. is the first Indian film to gross US$10 million in North America (US and Canada). The international gross was US$47.99 million ( 304.52 crore) —at the time, the . In Pakistan, grossed (US$620,000) as of 10 January 2015. had a second phase of overseas release in , most prominently in . It became an instant hit, grossing US$5.14–5.3 million in first three days of release due to good word-of-mouth—a record for an Indian film (previously held by ), debuting at second place at the Chinese box office behind . became the highest-grossing Indian film in China in just 72 hours and grossed US$19.5 million (Rs 1.22 billion) in China. It became the first Indian film to pass the 100 million ($16.11 million) threshold, which is considered rare for a non-Hollywood foreign film. The film grossed 119 million (US$20 million) in China. In addition, it grossed US$0.3 million in , US$870,000 in , and US$289,000 in . was also a hit in Japan when it was released there in 2016, particularly in ; in , for example, it was the year’s second highest-earning film at . Director Hirani has confirmed that a sequel will be made starring Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. He said, “We will make the sequel. We had shown Ranbir [Kapoor’s character landing on the planet] towards the end of the film, so there is a story to tell. But Abhijat (Joshi, writer) has not written it yet. The day he writes it, we will make it.” When the shoot was going on in Chandni Chowk area of Delhi, an was lodged against the makers of the film for allegedly in October 2013. The objection was regarding a scene where a man dressed as the Hindu deity , pulls the rickshaw with two clad women as passengers. In July 2014, the film’s poster sparked a controversy as it featured posing almost with only a covering his . Although the had cleared the film, a was filed in the court by the All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front to ban its release saying it promoted nudity and vulgarity. The of India dismissed the plea and gave the film a green signal. A case was lodged against Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani under in Rajasthan. Activists of pro-Hindu organisations and protested against certain scenes in the film, which they considered to be hurtful to the religious sentiments of the Hindu community as it showed running behind . Subsequently, some theatres were vandalised by those activists, who demanded a ban on the movie and a was filed against for the same. of and of took issue with the film for mocking . in January 2015 raised questions with the about the film, demanding that the investigate how the film received its certification from the Censor Board despite several members of the Board requesting that the film be reviewed again, but with no action taken. The Sunni clerics of the demanded the removal of some scenes of the movie which they believed were hurting religious sentiments. Government officials, such as the chief minister and the then–chief minister of , exempted the film from to encourage wider viewership.</p>