Happy New Year (2014 film)

Happy New Year (sometimes abbreviated as HNY) is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Farah Khan and produced by Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment. The film features an ensemble cast of Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah and Jackie Shroff. It was distributed worldwide by Yash Raj Films. In the film, a bunch of losers transform themselves into a team that wins over the hearts of the people in the city and across the world, all as part of their quest to pull off the biggest diamond heist ever seen.

Made on a total budget of inr 1400000000, the film marked the third collaboration of the lead actor, producer and director; they previously worked on Main Hoon Na (2004) and Om Shanti Om (2007), the latter of which also featured Padukone as the female lead.

Happy New Year was released on Diwali 2014 with dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu, and gained around 4,200 screens in Hindi and 800 screens in Tamil and Telugu, that was the biggest film release in India up until then. It received negative reviews from critics, who appreciated the cast performances, soundtrack, humor, cinematography, production design and visual effects, but criticized the writing, length and pace. It grossed inr 449700000 in India on its opening day which was the record for the highest domestic opening for an indian film at that time and eventually grossing a total of inr 4080000000 worldwide. Despite negative reviews, it became a huge success.

At the 60th Filmfare Awards, Happy New Year received 2 nominations – Best Supporting Actor (Bachchan) and Best Female Playback Singer (Shreya Ghoshal for "Manwa Laage"). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences features the film's script in their library.

Plot
Chandramohan "Charlie" Sharma is a small street boxer who has spent eight years plotting revenge on Charan Grover, who was responsible for Charlie's father Manohar being convicted and imprisoned as a thief. Charlie learned that some diamonds owned by Grover will be moved on Christmas Eve to the most secure safe in the world, Shalimar in Dubai. He find out that Shalimar is located beneath the Atlantis Hotel. The night the diamonds come, Charlie plans to steal the diamonds and frame Grover. He assembles a team that includes hard-of-hearing strongman and explosives expert Jagmohan "Jag" Prakash, seizure-prone safecracker Tehamton "Tammy" Irani, Jag's nephew and master hacker Rohan Singh, and Nandu Bhide, who looks identical to Grover's son Vikky. Jag and Tammy also resent Grover, as they both were close to and worked with Manohar to build Shalimar. Charlie reveals to Nandu that 8 years ago, Grover, who at the time was an African Diamonds Dealer, had hired Manohar to build the most secure safe in the world to keep some diamonds in. Later, as the project had been completed, Grover drugged Manohar and stole his own diamonds framing Manohar for the theft and was sent to prison for 12 years.

The first chamber of Shalimar can only be opened with the finger print of Vicky Grover, meaning the team would have to get Vicky’s fingerprint and disguise Nandu as Vicky. After Nandu opens the door, he would open an AC duct panel to let Charlie and Tammy enter the vault, where they would continue on to crack the safe. The AC duct would be connected to a hotel room above Shalimar, room 9C, which is in the Atlantis Hotel. But, room 9C is reserved for teams participating in the World Dance Championship (WDC). The group must participate in the contest as Team India in order to access the room. After the group fails to learn from several dance instructors, Nandu introduces Charlie to Mohini, a bar dancer who plans to open a dance school with money earned at the bar. Mohini agrees to teach the group to dance without knowing their true intentions, and grows close to Charlie.

The team passes the first round of the dance competition by blackmailing the judges. They dance to a poor reception in the India final, but Rohan hacks the voting system and puts them in first place. Their reception is even more hostile in Dubai, especially from Team North Korea, the defending champions who are sponsored by Grover. During the semifinal match between Team India and Team Korea, Charlie breaks the dance formation to save a young Korean team member from a dangerous stunt, gaining the audience's admiration. Team India become unexpected fan favorites.

The team is upset to learn that the diamonds will arrive on New Year's Eve instead of Christmas, meaning they must reach the finals to go on withducts from room 9C, and they continue to steal the diamonds.

As the group prepares to flee by boat with the diamonds, Rohan tells them that Mohini has refused to join them, planning instead to dance in the finals for India. The group fights about whether to join her. When the diamonds are found missing and Team India fails to appear onstage, Grover accuses them of being the thieves; however, the entire group joins Mohini, convincing Grover's associates and the police that he stole his own diamonds, which were contracted to be sold after WDC. Team India wins teh Championship. As they encounter Grover and Vicky being led away in handcuffs, Charlie reveals himself to Grover as Manohar’s son and gives him the same razor blade Manohar used to commit suicide in prison.

The movie ends with the entire team becoming successful and Charlie proposes to Mohini.

Cast

 * Shah Rukh Khan as Chandramohan "Charlie" Manohar Sharma, Manohar's son, Tammy, Jag, Rohan and Nandu's friend, Mohini's love interest.
 * Deepika Padukone as Mohini Joshi, Charlie's love interest, Nandu's childhood friend and the founder of Mohini Dance School
 * Abhishek Bachchan in a dual role as
 * Nandu Bhide, Mohini's childhood friend
 * Vicky Grover, Charan's son
 * Sonu Sood as Captain Jagmohan "Jag" Prakash, Manohar and Charlie's close friend
 * Boman Irani as Temthon "Tammy" Irani, Manohar and Charlie's close friend and Namita's son
 * Vivaan Shah as Rohan Singh, Jag's nephew and Charlie's close friend
 * Jackie Shroff as Charan Grover, Vicky's father and owner of Shalimar Securities who cheated Manohar and owns his company
 * Jason Tham as Huyi Chuk, a Team Korea leader
 * Mohan Kapur as Mr. Kapoor, Charan's assistant
 * Varun Pruthi as Sartaj Gill, Charan's assistant
 * Kavi Shastri as Mr. Suryakant Gupta
 * Rio Kapadia as an unnamed owner of diamonds

Extended cameo appearances

 * Sarah-Jane Dias as Laila: India's ambassador at WDC
 * Daisy Irani as Namita Irani, Tammy's mother

Cameo appearances

 * Anupam Kher as Manohar Sharma, Charlie's father and an intelligent businessman
 * Dino Morea as himself, a host of World Dance Championship
 * Kiku Sharda as a fake Saroj Khan
 * Prabhu Deva as himself, a dance instructor
 * Malaika Arora as Manolika Jhawar, a heroine of a film titled Ha Haa He Hee
 * Vishal Malhotra as himself, a host of World Dance Championship auditions
 * Anurag Kashyap as himself, a selection Judge of World Dance Championship auditions
 * Vishal Dadlani as himself, a selection Judge of World Dance Championship auditions
 * Sajid Khan as himself, a director of a film titled Ha Haa He Hee
 * Geeta Kapoor as herself, a judge of World Dance Championship
 * Abram Khan as himself, during the end credits

Development
Plans for the film began as far back as 2005 with an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Ameesha Patel, Priyanka Chopra, Raveena Tandon and Zayed Khan. The film was shelved for unknown reasons and instead, Farah Khan made Om Shanti Om (2007), which featured Khan and Padukone. After her film Tees Maar Khan (2010), Farah began to consider the possibilities of the film and screenwriting was completed by October 2012.

Casting
In December 2012, media reported that the makers had approached Priyanka Chopra for the role, who was their first choice for the film after the script was revamped. However, Chopra turned down the film due to dates issue; the schedule was clashing with another film she had signed. Several actresses were considered for the role, such as Sonakshi Sinha, Asin, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Parineeti Chopra and Katrina Kaif, however, Padukone was finalized, making it her third film opposite Khan following Om Shanti Om and Chennai Express (2013). Khan was reported to be playing the role of a con artist in the film which had Deepika in the role of a Marathi dancer. At a point, John Abraham was to play one of the supporting roles but Sonu Sood replaced him. Boman Irani was confirmed by the director during an interview. In August 2013, Jackie Shroff was finalised to play the film's antagonist. The director's brother, Sajid Khan, would be making a guest appearance while actress Malaika Arora Khan was also signed to appear in a cameo. Vivaan Shah was reported to play the role of a computer hacker. Actor-director Prabhu Deva performed a dance in a cameo.

Filming
Farah made the official announcement on Twitter. The first schedule of filming started in Dubai in early November 2013. Arabian Business reported that a major portion of the film will be shot in the prestigious Atlantis, The Palm.

On 23 January 2014, Shah Rukh Khan was injured while shooting at JW Marriott Hotel, Mumbai. Though reported as minor at first, he suffered a fractured shoulder and a torn left knee patella, being advised rest for a while.

Mehboob Studios was used as one of the major locations while certain portions were also filmed near the Wilson College. The final schedule was completed in August 2014.

Costume designs
Farah Khan wanted Shah Rukh Khan to grow his hair long so that he could sport shoulder length tresses.

Marketing
For promotion, digitally personalized posters written in cast members' handwriting were made available to social media users. The team of Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah went to the set of the famous Indian television show Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma (TMKOC) for the promotion of their movie.

The film's cast and crew, along with rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh and actress Madhuri Dixit travelled on a promotional tour titled "SLAM!". Starting from 19 September in Houston, it took place in New Jersey, Washington, Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver and San Jose. "SLAM!" also continued to United Kingdom on 5 October.

On 13 October 2014, an official game based on the film, titled Happy New Year-The Game was released for Android and iOS. It was made in collaboration with the production company and Gameshastra India, an Indian game art outsourcing studio.

Distribution rights
The worldwide distribution rights were sold to Yash Raj Films for inr 1250000000, the satellite rights were sold to Zee Network for inr 650000000 and the music rights to T-Series for inr 120000000, earning a total pre-release revenue of inr 2020000000.

Music
The music of Happy New Year is composed by the duo of Vishal–Shekhar while the lyrics are penned by Irshad Kamil. The full soundtrack was launched on 15 September 2014. Prior to that, promotional music videos were released for "Indiawaale" on 21 September and "Manwa Laage" on 25 September respectively. After the album was launched, promotional videos of the songs "Lovely", "Nonsense Ki Night" and "Satakli" were also released. "India Waale" is featured in Just Dance Now, Just Dance 2015 (as downloadable content) and is part of the Just Dance Unlimited service.

Reception
The soundtrack received mostly positive reviews from music critics.

Kasmin Fernandes at The Times of India felt, "As a heist film centred around a dance competition, Happy New Year provides plenty of fodder for composers Vishal and Shekhar and lyricist Irshad Kamil to showcase their way with sounds. And they've delivered, with seven original tracks, one electronic version, a variation, a medley and an instrumental number." Rohit Vats for Hindustan Times gave the album 3 out of 5 stars stated, "Farah Khan looks more concerned about the feel of her film than the quality of the songs, and it prompts her to go with trendy tunes. Overall, the album is average and is only youth oriented. Acquiring longevity will be difficult for this album." For India.com, Prathamesh Jadhav wrote, "It's a mixed bag!" On the contrary critic Surabhi Redkar for Koimoi felt, "The Happy New Year album is not as extravagant as the film looks. With an expectation of a Bollywood musical soundtrack, it comes down to a regular album of Vishal-Shekhar. Even though the album will be a hit with tracks such as 'Manwa Laage' and 'Kamli', it will not enjoy much longevity."

Box Office
Worldwide, the film grossed inr 3940000000, making it one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.

India
Happy New Year set a record by collecting ₹44.99 crore, making it the first Bollywood film to reach the figure in a single day. The record was broken by the 2018 Diwali release Thugs of Hindostan starring Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh which collected 52.25 crore on Day 1. The film witnessed a drop on Saturday when it earned ₹285million nett and collections on Sunday were in the same range, taking the opening weekend to a record ₹970million nett. The film grossed around ₹1.75billion in its first weekend worldwide, the second highest opening for a Hindi film after Dhoom 3.

The film grossed around ₹122.5million nett on its first Monday to take its total to ₹1.09billion in four days. It earned ₹110million nett on its first Tuesday as the film had a decent hold from Monday in a few circuits, taking its total to a huge ₹1.20billion nett in five days. Happy New Year grossed a huge ₹1.34billion nett in its first week. The film had a strong weekend and its all India collections were good on Monday and Tuesday but it fell on Wednesday. The huge first week gave the film a massive distributor share of ₹770million approx. The film grossed ₹2.45billion worldwide in its first week which was the fourth highest total ever behind Dhoom 3, Kick and Chennai Express. The Tamil and Telugu versions of the film grossed ₹11million nett and ₹26million nett respectively in first week.

Happy New Year had good collections on second Friday of around ₹45million nett. The film showed huge growth on its second Saturday and Sunday to gross around ₹67.5million nett and ₹92.5million nett respectively. Happy New Year grossed around ₹202.5million in second weekend to take its ten-day total to ₹1.54billion nett. The film grossed around ₹30million nett on second Monday, ₹40million nett on second Tuesday and ₹27.5million nett on second Wednesday. Happy New Year grossed around ₹353.8million nett in its second week to take its total to ₹1.685billion nett. It grossed around ₹45million nett over its third weekend to take its total to ₹1.73billion nett. Happy New Year grossed around ₹77.5million nett in week three taking its total to a little over ₹1.76billion nett.

Happy New Year grossed ₹15.6million nett in week four and ₹3.4million nett in week five taking its final total to ₹1.83billion nett. Box Office India declared Happy New Year a "Super Hit". Its final domestic gross was ₹295crore (US$million).

Overseas
Happy New Year recorded the second highest overseas opening weekend of all time with figures of US$8.1 million (₹498 million). The film had an all-time record opening in the Gulf, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Germany. In the opening weekend, the film grossed US$2.9 million (₹178 million) in the Gulf, $2 million (₹123 million) in US/Canada, £570,000 (₹56 million) in United Kingdom, A$380,000 (₹20.5 million) in Australia, and PKR 62 million (US$600,000, INR 37 million) in Pakistan. Happy New Year took the all-time best ever opening for a Hindi film in Germany as it grossed $94,000 on its first day of release. Dhoom 3 had grossed $86,000 over the weekend and My Name Is Khan was $98,000 over the weekend.

At the end of its theatrical run overseas, the film earned US$16.71 million (₹102 crore) in overseas markets. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever in overseas markets.

The film released in China on 12 February 2015. It went on to gross $500,000 (₹crore) at the Chinese box office.

Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics in India and overseas. It holds a 57% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews. While the performances of the lead cast, and the humor content received praise, the lack of character development and the 'unoriginal' plot received criticism.

Domestic
Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting "You'll find yourself chuckling and cringing alternately while watching Happy New Year, in which director Farah Khan skillfully sets up a heist plot against an international dance competition scenario. Its a curious premise, and Farah brings many of the same elements that she applied to good use in Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om, namely lots of self-referencing, affectionate nods to 70s Bollywood, and the ability to occasionally laugh at oneself." Anupama Chopra gave 2 out of 5 stars and said "It is frantic, noisy, gaudy and, largely, joyless. Farah takes the framework of the traditional heist movie and bungs in revenge, melodrama, comedy, romance, countless dazzling dance sequences and, as a climactic flourish, a dose of patriotism."

Saurabh Gupta of Indian Express rated the film 2 out of 5 stars calling it a "Mera Bharat Mahan sentiments" type movie, and a cross between an Ocean's 11/12 and "Flashdance". Rediff rated the film 2 out of 5 stars, and said "the film plays out like a spoof from the get go, a gigantic lark where nothing is taken seriously". NDTV also rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and said that irrespective of earnings at the box office, it "has nothing new to offer". Mihir Fadnavis of First Post said that, "the movie looks and feels like a home video project that was intended for appreciation by precisely two people in the entire universe – Farah and Shah Rukh Khan" and appears to be "Ocean's 11 rewritten by baboons". Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars taking on originality, said that "Originality? What's that, ask Farah Khan in Happy New Year".

International
Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters said that the film has liberally borrowed from Hollywood heist films, in particular from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. "The first half is lighter and genuinely funny at times, but as the second half wears on, the proceedings become monotonous". Lisa Tsering of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed film as, "an ambitious musical, a love story and an Ocean's 11-style crime caper". Sami Qahar of the Dawn gave the film 2.5 out 5 stars and said the film is "Ocean's Eleven plus Italian Job plus Step Up all in one...on cheap shape-deteriorating steroids."

Controversy
Bollywood film choreographer Saroj Khan reportedly got upset after being parodied in the film. Farah Khan denied having spoofed Saroj Khan. Farah had earlier allegedly spoofed Manoj Kumar in her 2007 film Om Shanti Om.

Jaya Bachchan described Happy New Year as a "nonsensical film" and she said, "I only watched it because Abhishek is in it. I told him that he is a great actor if he can act stupid in front of the camera like that."