Bad Newz (film)

Bad Newz is a 2024 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Anand Tiwari. Produced by Amazon Prime, Dharma Productions and Leo Media Collective, the film inspired by true events stars Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri, and Ammy Virk. It is a spiritual sequel to Good Newwz (2019), and revolves around heteropaternal superfecundation, a reproductive process in which twins are born to the same mother, but from different biological fathers.

Principal photography took place from March 2022 to July 2023. The film was theatrically released on 19 July 2024.

Plot
A young woman Saloni Bagga is a chef who dreams to have her restaurant win the Miraki Star. She meets Akhil Chadda and they hit it off immediately and get married soon. However, soon problems arise in their marriage, one of which causes her to restaurant to lose their Miraki star and subsequently get her fired. As a result of these problems, the couple gets divorced. Saloni relocates to Mussourie to work at a restaurant owned by Gurbir Pannu. After a chain of events, Saloni lands up having a one night stand with Gurbir. Same night, Akhil shows up at her room, wanting her back and they end up sleeping together as well.

As result of these encounters, Saloni gets pregnant. After doing paternity test to determine the baby’s father, she realizes that she is pregnant with twins. To make matters worse, she is told that as a result of a very rare phenomenon called heteropaternal superfecundation, the twins have different fathers.

This follows a funny chain of events where both men try to prove that they would respectively make a better partner and a father. During once such event, Saloni faints due to stress. She is admitted and the doctor reveals that Gurbir’s baby isn’t growing well but Akhil’s baby is growing normally and waiting longer to deliver the babies will cause Gurbir’s baby to not survive. In these circumstances, Akhil makes a selfless decision to deliver the babies right away since it would give them both a chance to survive.

Luckily the delivery goes well and Saloni delivers two healthy babies and is fine herself as well. When she realizes the selfless decision Alkhil made, she is touched. In the end she asks Akhil to marry her again which he accepts and Gurbir gets back together with his ex-girlfriend. They all decide to raise the babies together and Saloni’s restaurant wins a Miraki star.

Cast

 * Vicky Kaushal as Akhil Chadha
 * Triptii Dimri as Saloni Bagga
 * Ammy Virk as Gurbir Singh Pannu
 * Neha Dhupia as Ma Corona, Saloni’s aunt
 * Sheeba Chaddha as Vishni Chadha, Akhil's mother
 * Faisal Rashid as Doctor Baweja
 * Khayali Ram as Sukhi Mama
 * Guneet Singh Sodhi as Harman Sathija
 * Kamlesh Kumari as Teji
 * Navin Kaushik as Panama Cafe Manager
 * Harnek Aulak as Amardeep Bagga
 * Vijaylaxmi Singh as Sunita Bagga
 * Mahabir Singh Bhuller as Darzi
 * Shayank Shukla as Golu
 * Deepak Anand as Rifleman
 * Santosh Kumar as Piano Player
 * Ananya Panday as Herself (special appearance)
 * Neha Sharma as Sejal, Gurbir's ex-girlfriend (cameo appearance)
 * Gajraj Rao as Himself (special appearance)

Development
The films' arrival post production was announced on March 2024 by Karan Johar which was initially titled Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam, and was later changed to Bad Newz.

Filming
Principal photography commenced in March 2022. Production was wrapped in July 2023. The song 'Rabb Warga' was shot in exotic locations of Croatia.

Music
The music of the film is composed by Rochak Kohli, Vishal Mishra, Lijo George-DJ Chetas, Prem-Hardeep, Karan Aujla and Abhijeet Srivastava while the background score is composed by Amar Mohile. The first single titled "Tauba Tauba" was released on 2 July 2024. The second single titled "Jaanam" was released on 9 July 2024. The third single titled "Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam" was a remix of the original song from the 1998 film, Duplicate (orginally composed by Anu Malik) and was released on 14 July 2024.

Theatrical
After multiple date changes and other delays, Bad Newz was theatrically released on 19 July 2024.

Reception
Bollywood Hungama gave 4/5 and wrote "On the whole, Bad Newz is a fun-filled entertainer." Dhaval Roy of The Times of India rated the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "With a hilarious premise and two funny men, this one’s a laugh riot. Even when the plot takes a familiar turn and stretches, the witty dialogues and spot-on comedic timing from the cast ensure you're consistently entertained." Rishil Jogani of Pinkvilla gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Bad Newz is an unadulterated fun entertainer with potential that's left untapped. The concept of the film had much more scope for a deeper and broader messaging but it gets reduced to a movie you watch for a few laughs and gags, before getting on with your life."

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com rated 2.5/5 stars and notes "Pretty frames, gorgeously styled actors, easily resolved complex issues, Bad Newz has no wish to rise above its fluff objectives." Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express rated the film 2.5/5 and wrote "If Bad Newz had stuck to its comedic guns, without resorting to the weepy saccharine bits which take over in the second half, it would have been gold." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the film at 2/5, saying "It is the absence of genuine crackle in the average, single-note confection that Bad Newz is that does the film in."