Kabir Singh

• Kabir Singh is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film written and directed by Sandeep Vanga. It is a remake of his own Telugu film Arjun Reddy (2017).
  Jointly produced by Cine1 Studios and T-Series, the film stars Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani. It focuses on the title character, an alcoholic surgeon with an explosive temper who goes on a self-destructive path after his girlfriend is forced to marry someone else.
• Release date: 21 June 2019

Plot

• Kabir Rajdheer Singh is a house surgeon at Delhi Institute of Medical Sciences. Despite being a brilliant student, he has severe anger management problems that earn the wrath of the college dean. Kabir's aggressive nature also earns him a reputation among his juniors as a college bully. After having a brawl with Amit, one of the team members from another college alongside his friend Kamal against other members of the opposing team who ridiculed them during an inter-college football match, the dean asks Kabir to either apologise or leave the college. Kabir initially chooses to leave, but stays back after meeting and falling in love with first-year student Preeti Sikka.

• Kabir and his friend Shiva enter a third-year classroom and announce that Kabir is in love with Preeti, asserting that she is exclusive to him. Initially afraid, Preeti starts adjusting herself to Kabir's overbearing attitude. She eventually reciprocates his feelings and they develop an intimate relationship. One day on Holi, Kabir plans to surprise Preeti but receives a phone call saying that someone assaulted her, the person is none other than Amit and Kabir goes to his college and beats him up. Kabir tells Amit of what he did was wrong and how much he cares for Preeti. Kabir graduates with an MBBS degree and leaves for Mussoorie to pursue a Master's degree in orthopaedic surgery. Over three years both come back to Mumbai to their respective homes but Kabir's and Preeti's relationship becomes stronger. Months later, Kabir visits Preeti's house in Mumbai, where her father, Harpal, sees them kissing and throws Kabir out.

Cast

• Shahid Kapoor as Dr Kabir Rajdheer Singh
• Kiara Advani as Dr Preeti Sikka
• Soham Majumdar as Dr Shiva
• Arjan Bajwa as Karan Rajdheer Singh
• Nikita Dutta as Jia Sharma
• Kamini Kaushal as Sadhna Kaur "Dadi"
• Suresh Oberoi as Rajdheer Singh
• Adil Hussain as the college dean
• Kunal Thakur as Dr Kama
• Anusha Sampath as Dr Keerti
• Swati Seth as Dr Vidya
• Anurag Arora as Harpal Sikka
• Vinay Sharma as Dr Kalyan "Sir"
• Amit Sharma as Amit
• Geetika as Preeti's roommate
• Suparna Marwah as Bhavna Sikka
• Dolly Mattoo as Kabir's mother
• Harsh A. Singh as Kabir's lawyer
• Vanita Kharat as Kabir's maid
• Urvashi Panchal as nurse Durga
• Siya Mahajan as nurse Rani
• Vipul Deshpande as a hospital doctor
• Parakh Madan as Preeti's sister
• Mitansh Lulla as Preeti's brother
• Ankush Deshmukh as Lakshman
• Ramakant Dayma as Shiva's father
• Gagandeep Singh as Jatinder
• Meneka Kurup Arora as a lady judge
• Abhay Dheeraj Singh as Preeti's brother-in-law
• Aanchal Chauhan as Karan's wife
• Komal Singh as senior student ragging
• Monu Bisht as senior student ragging
• Ridhi Gupta as senior student
• Teena Singh as a fractured patient's fiance
• Rajat Aroraa as the fractured patient
• Priya Roniyar as Shiva's sister
• Prashanth as auto driver
• SP Mishra as old patient
• Dhiren as Kabir's landlord
• Danish as Shiva's future brother-in-law
• Anagha Joshi as the lady on the roof

Development

After the success of the Telugu film Arjun Reddy (2017), its writer and director Sandeep Vanga wanted to remake it in Hindi with Ranveer Singh. When it did not work out, he approached Shahid Kapoor. However, producers Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde of Cine1 Studios, who acquired the remake rights for Hindi, wanted Arjun Kapoor to play the male lead. Disappointed, Vanga said, "I've come to know that the remake rights of Arjun Reddy have been sold and it would star Arjun Kapoor. I am caught in a dilemma, as I've already locked Shahid for the role. It's a very embarrassing situation for me. I don't know how I'll face Shahid. In April 2018, however, it was officially announced that Shahid Kapoor would star, with Vanga returning as director.

Bhushan and Krishan Kumar of T-Series also produced the film, while Vinod Bhanushali received a co-producer credit. The dialogue was written by Siddharth–Garima. Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran was selected as the cinematographer, and Aarif Sheikh as editor. Vanga was confident that the remake would be even more hard hitting than the original: "When I made Arjun Reddy, I wasn't sure where to draw the line in terms of representation of certain things. I don't think I'd have to restrict myself when it comes to the Hindi version. I believe I'll have more freedom in Bollywood. The film's title Kabir Singh was announced on 25 October 2018.

Writing

Like the Telugu original, Kabir Singh too begins with a voiceover from the hero's paternal grandmother, but this time she is reciting a Kabir Doha. There are also geographical changes; the remake is set primarily in Delhi and Mumbai. Instead of caste conflict as in Arjun Reddy, the heroine's father takes offence to Kabir's smoking and not being a turban-wearing Sikh. For the remake, Vanga said he deployed less English than the original. "I've also tried to retain the colloquial quality in the Hindi dialogue." About the name Kabir Singh, he said, "There's a lot of melancholy in the name Kabir and a poetic side too."^[14] Vanga explained his reasons for choosing this as the film's title: "When we started work on the Hindi script, it was a very exciting journey. Kabir Singh, as the protagonist's name, came naturally, considering the character's graph. Kabir Singh has the same punch and madness of Arjun Reddy.

Casting

Shahid Kapoor portrays the title character, Kabir Rajdheer Singh. Although Kiara Advani was Vanga's first choice for the female lead character Preeti, things failed to materialise. Tara Sutaria was then announced, but left when a delay in the production of her debut film Student of the Year 2 (2019) caused scheduling conflicts. The makers then went back to Advani to play the role of Preeti, Vanga cited her performance in M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story (2016) as one of the reasons. According to Vanga, "Kiara epitomises the female character in the film to the T. She has the perfect combination of innocence (in terms of looks) and maturity (in terms of performance) that's so important for the character".Arjan Bajwa was initially unwilling to play Kabir's elder brother Karan Singh, but accepted at the insistence of Vanga, for whom he was the only choice to play the character. Suresh Oberoi portrays Kabir and Karan's father Rajdheer Singh. Amit Sharma, who appeared as Amit in the Telugu original, was chosen to reprise his role.

Filming

The makers considered beginning the shoot in August, but it was delayed to September as Vanga wanted Kapoor to grow his beard more for the role. Principal photography eventually began on 21 October 2018 at Mumbai, four days before the announcement of the title. Filming also took place at Delhi and Mussoorie. Kapoor dons three different looks for the film. Regarding this he said, "There's a certain mind space and the present which the character is in and there's also the past which he has been part of. Along with this, there's the culmination. So, there are three distinct energies that the film needs. He went through substantial workouts to portray Kabir Singh in two time periods; to achieve the character's "college boy" look, he shed 14 kilos of weight, and for the "puffy, groggy alcoholic" look, he worked out in a way that he would look "bigger but not muscular". Principal photography wrapped on 29 March 2019.

Release

Kabir Singh was released on 21 June 2019, worldwide on 3616 screens including 3123 screens in India. It is distributed by AA Films within India. Khetani chose not to release the film in Pakistan, following the 2019 Pulwama attack. The film received an 'A' (adults only) certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with the CBFC asking the makers to modify a scene where a character is seen snorting drugs, and also asked for insertion of static warning messages against drug abuse in all such scenes.