Saiyaara PR team went overboard with theatre clips, says Varun Badola: 'Chudiyaan tod rahe hain, chhaati peet rahe hain'

Hindustan Times

5 hours ago

The romantic drama, Saiyaara, has broken several box office records and made Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda overnight sensations. In a recent interview with Screen, actor Varun Badola called out the film's PR team for going overboard in creating a euphoria around the film on social media. Varun Badola calls out Saiyaara's PR team of going over the board.
Varun explained how, while working on the film, no one thought it would get so big. However, when the film broke records at the box office on the third day, it was then that everyone realised it had become that big. He further revealed that he hadn't watched Saiyaara yet.
Varun Badola says Saiyaara's PR team went overboard
Varun called out the promotional team of the film for going over the board and said, 'By the third or fourth day, the film was being talked about. I saw the euphoria on Instagram. Log jo chudiyaan tod rahe hain, chhaatiyaan peet rahe hai (People were breaking their bangles, beating their chest). I think the promotions team went a little overboard there, where people are going to see the film, putting IV drips.'
He added, "Those people must have been told to give content in some way; thank god, people didn't get their legs broken and went crawling to see the film. It's okay. We understand promoting the film, but it's good only up to a certain level. However, the film cannot earn so much money just based on Instagram promotions. People have gone and seen the film, and they have loved it."
What Mohit Suri said on 'paid theatre videos'
Varun essayed the role of Ahaan's father in the film. After the first weekend, videos of viewers crying their eyes out, shouting, and fainting in theatres during the film's screening surfaced on the internet, and many accused it of being paid PR. However, speaking to Zoom, Mohit Suri clarified that the reactions were authentic and organic and said, 'We have tried to be honest all through this film. People think the viral theatre videos were created, but we have not done that."
About Saiyaara
Helmed by Mohit Suri, Saiyaara tells the story of a struggling and troubled musician, Krissh Kapoor, who meets an aspiring journalist and a poet, Vaani Batra (played by Aneet Padda). He finds poems in her diary and turns those words into songs. As they work on songs together, with Vaani writing lyrics for him, they fall in love with each other. However, fate puts their relationship to the test and separates them. The rest of the tale shows whether they unite at the end or not.
Backed by Aditya Chopra's YRF, the film marked Ahaan Panday's Bollywood debut and made both Ahaan and Aneet overnight sensations. The film, which also stars Rajesh Kumar, Geeta Aggarwal (Vaani's parents), Alam Khan (Krissh's friend) and Shann Groverr (Vaani's ex-fiancé), has grossed ₹304 crore at the Indian box office and over ₹500 crore worldwide — thus emerging as the biggest romantic drama ever in Indian cinema and the second-highest-grossing Indian film of 2025 after Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava ( ₹807.91 crore worldwide).