It’s been a decade since Rajkumar Hirani made PK. The director shares that it was only a few weeks ago that Aamir Khan called him and shared that he was shooting in Sambhar – the location where the film’s opening scene was shot and where alien PK landed over 10 years ago. “Aamir said, ‘I’m here and have so many memories.’ That’s where we shot his nude scene, which became the iconic poster, and Aamir so sportingly did it all. From Sambhar to Jaipur, Delhi, and even Belgium, where we shot with Anushka and Sushant at the time, PK took us to many places. Like every film, I have tons of great memories from this one too,” he says. Now a decade later, the director takes us on a journey to the making of this cinematic hit.
Aamir said, ‘I’ve always wanted to do Bhojpuri. What if PK speaks Bhojpuri?’
PK had some of the memorable dialogues – ‘Lul ho gayi humri life, humra gola par log jhoot nahi bolat hai, aise tukar tukar ka dekhat ho?’
Initially, since the character lands in Rajasthan, the idea was that he would hold someone’s hand, learn their language, and speak Rajasthani. Hirani shares, “But at some stage, Aamir said, ‘I’ve always wanted to try Bhojpuri, and it might sound more interesting.’ Then, we assumed that the person whose hand he holds is from Bihar. When Aamir delivered the lines in Bhojpuri instead of Rajasthani, it sounded so much more interesting. So, we decided to go with Bhojpuri.”
Hirani shares, “I’ve always felt that India’s diverse languages and dialects add so much richness to storytelling. Giving PK a dialect instead of plain Hindi brought a lot of colour to the character. It’s like in Munnabhai, Mumbai slang – ‘Watt lag gayi meri’ is so much more fun than saying, ‘Main phans gaya’ or ‘Main mar gaya’.”
‘Wanted PK to speak for itself’
Before the release of the film, no one knew what it was about. Hirani recalls, “Certain things, when included in promotions, aren’t always very inviting to watch a film. For example, when we were working on
Lage Raho Munna Bhai
, the initial title was Munna Bhai Meets Mahatma Gandhi. At some point, I felt that the mention of Mahatma Gandhi might not seem very exciting for an entertaining film. People might not feel compelled to watch it and could even be repelled by the idea. I thought, let’s first bring the audience in. Once they’re in, they’ll understand what we’re trying to say. That’s when we changed the name to Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Similarly, for PK, we didn’t want to reveal upfront that it was a film about God and religion. I decided to let the audience come in first. As a result, there were a lot of speculations: maybe the film was about an alien, or maybe the title PK referred to a drunkard, or perhaps Aamir’s character was a loony. The confusion created curiosity. The way Aamir looked in the trailers made people wonder if he was a drunkard or an alien. I wanted the audience to come in and let the film speak for itself.”
A still from PK
None of Sushant Singh Rajput’s films had been released at the time of PK, but Rajkumar Hirani had seen some footage and decided to cast him. He recalls, “I remember we were shooting with him when his first film was released. We all went to see his first film at that time”
PK
Talking about how Aamir Khan came on board, Rajkumar Hirani shares, “I had kind of narrated the core idea to Aamir. He said, ‘Yes, it’s a great idea, but it’s a difficult script to write. So, if you manage to write it, let me know.’ After a year or so, when the script was finally ready, he was the first person I went to and narrated it to. He loved it and immediately said he wanted to do it”
The film was initially titled Tully
At one point in the film, PK says, “Naam kucho nahi hai hamaar, lekin pata nahi kaahe sablog hamka Pk-Pk bulwat hai”. Why? “The film was initially titled Tully,” Hirani reveals, “It felt too slangy, so we decided to call it PK. Wherever Aamir’s character went, people called him PK. He goes to the police station to file a complaint against God, and the policeman asks, ‘Pi ke hai kya?’ Then he goes to a temple and asks for his donation back, and again, someone says, ‘Pi ke aaya hai kya?’ That’s when his character begins to think that his name is PK. The idea was to make him seem drunk because the things he was saying were so absurd”
Saurabh Shukla as godman in PK
“Boman Irani tested for the role of the godman or guru, but the director felt he somehow didn’t fit the image. So, we tried several actors and came to Saurabh Shukla. Saurabh had that perfect look and was ready to shave his head for the role, which made him even more fitting for the character,” Hirani shared.
