10 Years of Pyaar Ka Punchnaama: 5 Facts about the film you might have missed

By Subhash K. Jha -

May 21, 2021 - 5:41 PM IST

1. The sleeper hit of 2011 Pyaar Ka Punchnaama (PKP) introduced six new stars: Kartik Aaryan, Divyendu Sharma, Raayo S. Bakhirta, Nushrat Bharucha, Sonnalli Seygall and Ishita Raj Sharma. One of them Kartik Aaryan went on to become a superstar. Two others Divyendu and Nushrat are making names for themselves in quality content on OTT. One of the sextet Raayo vanished completely. What happened to him?

10 Years of Pyaar Ka Punchnaama: 5 Facts about the film you might have missed

2. Director Luv Ranjan was an assistant to Suneel Darshan. Yet, there is no trace of Darshan’s style of filmmaking in Ranjan’s work. Ranjan, though, has the highest regard for his mentor. His influences as seen in PKPN are the Friends series and the Archie comics. “I am quite fascinated by the question, ‘What do women want?’ Because the one thing they don’t want is an honest opinion from a man. ‘Main iss dress mein kaisi lag rahi hoon?’ The answer to that can only be, ‘Achchi lag rahi ho’.” This question—what women want—runs through my films,” says Ranjan.

3. On release on May 20, 2011 the critics accused the film of being misogynistic. Luv Ranjan claims he didn’t even know what the word meant until he was accused of it. Released during the same year as Salman Khan’s Ready and Bodyguard, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One and Don 2, Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Ranbir Kapoor’s Rockstar, PKP eventually made more profits than all the revered box office hits mentioned above. PKP was a sleeper earning progressively enhanced profits and praise as the years have gone by.

4. The film gave us one major superstar Kartik Aryan who is today among the handful of most saleable and unassailable stars. Luv Ranjan who went on to make three other films with Kartik (Pyaar Ka Punchnaama 2, the underrated Akash Vani and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety) is rightly proud of Kartik. “He is done me and himself proud. Do you know I found him on Facebook? I knew there was something very special about him. That he would become such a big star is just destiny. No one could predict such things. I’d say Pyaar Ka Punchnaama and its sequel made him a star and Sonu Ke Titu…consolidated his stardom.” The two are are still friends, and will work together again in the near future.

5. Kartik Aaryan’s 7-minute monologue about what women want was the unmistakable highlight of the film. It was to PKP what Pyar kiya toh darna kya was in Mughal-e-Azam or the Mere paas maa hai dialogue in Deewaar. Kartik remembers it as 5 ½ page sequence done as in one shot. Everyone on the set clapped when he finished it. But no one knew how popular this protest-monologue would prove among audiences. Over the year the Kartik Monologue has acquired the validity of a counter-feminist protest march. Even today Kartik is asked to perform that monologue by fans he runs into at airports. Fans!

Also Read: Do you know that Facebook helped Kartik Aaryan land Pyaar Ka Punchnama?