The film's story follows three childhood friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imran, who reunite for a three-week road trip. They set off to Spain and meet Laila, who falls in love with Arjun and helps him overcome his compulsion to work. Kabir and his fiance Natasha experience significant misunderstandings, while Imran wishes to meet his biological father, an artist. During their trip, each friend chooses a dangerous sport for the group to partake in.
The three men fly to Spain separately and meet in Barcelona, where Imran takes Kabir out to find an art gallery where they come across the work of Salman Habib, an artist who lives in Spain. They plan to visit Costa Brava, Seville, and Pamplona. On the way to Costa Brava, Imran and Kabir are annoyed when Arjun continues working on the journey. While Arjun is driving and answering a phone call, Imran casually throws Arjun's mobile phone out of their car, which results in a physical altercation. Arjun, in a fit of rage, accuses Imran of being unapologetic for being involved four years prior with Arjun's then-girlfriend Sonali; Kabir stops the argument and advises Arjun and Imran not to bring up Sonali as she was the main reason why the trip was cancelled four years prior. Upon reaching their destination, they meet Laila, an Anglo-Indian woman, to whom Arjun is immediately attracted; Imran flirts with her and makes Arjun jealous.
Kabir announces he has chosen underwater diving as their first sport, and they later find that Laila is their diving instructor. Arjun, who cannot swim and is aquaphobic, receives assistance from Laila to overcome his fears, and finishes the sport successfully, gaining a new perspective of life. Laila suggests they attend the La Tomatina festival with her in Buol, interfering with Arjun's planned activity; Arjun accepts and they head to the festival. Meanwhile, Natasha Arora, Kabir's fiance, becomes suspicious that Kabir is involved with Laila when she sees her on a video call with Kabir; he tries to explain that Laila has been invited over to the boys' villa for dinner, but Natasha does not believe him. Natasha crashes the bachelor party trip, much to Kabir's discomfort. Imran spends time with Laila's friend Nuria, and Arjun with Laila. After the men leave for Seville, both Arjun and Laila realise they have fallen in love and not to regret the partition, Laila chases them on a bike, kissing Arjun passionately before saying goodbye. Arjun now feels significantly more at peace with himself, and Natasha is relieved of her suspicions about Kabir.
On their way to Seville, Kabir drops Natasha at the airport, while Arjun and Imran discuss Kabir's change in behaviour around Natasha. The trio then visits Seville to go skydiving, Arjun's choice of sport. During the task, Imran is forced to confront his acrophobia and hesitates to take part, but does so anyway. After skydiving, the three men go to a bar and get drunk. After a prank backfires, they are arrested and held in custody until Imran reveals to his friends that Salman is his father. Imran calls Salman, who bails them out and takes them to his home. During a conversation with Imran, Salman reveals that he never wanted the responsibility of married life or children but Rahila did; as they continue talking, Imran notices that Salman still does not feel sorry for leaving Rahila. Realizing how his actions must have hurt Arjun four years ago, he apologises to him, and Arjun, appreciating the genuineness of his apology, forgives him with a hug.
The three men learn of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, which is Imran's choice, baffling Kabir and Arjun. Imran contacts Laila, who joins them. When confronted by his friends, Kabir reveals to the others that he proposed to Natasha by accident; he had bought a ring as a birthday present for his mother, and while showing it to Natasha, she had mistaken it for an engagement ring. Arjun realises why the trip was so important to Kabir; nobody apart from his two best friends would tell him to cancel his wedding. On the morning of the bull run, Imran suggests they make another pact for if they survive the event: Imran vows to publish the poetry he has written in his diary, Arjun vows to go to Morocco with Laila and live to the fullest, and Kabir promises to tell Natasha he does not want to marry her yet. The three friends complete the event successfully, gaining a renewed sense of life.
Imran, Kabir, Nuria, and Natasha later attend Arjun and Laila's wedding. Natasha and Kabir are no longer together but are still friends, and Natasha introduces him to her new partner. Imran's poems are revealed to have been published.
In November 2009, director-writer Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti completed the scripting of a film after three months of work.[14] The script had the working title Running with the Bulls, before the title Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was finalised,[15] the new title being an amendment of the line "Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara" from the title song of Rock On!! (2008).[16] Akhtar and Kagti incorporated real-life observations and wrote the character of Imran for the former's brother Farhan, who wrote the dialogue for the film.[17] Farhan produced the film with Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment.[7] The theme of the film was "three guys on the verge of making commitments in life", according to him.[18] They used Farhan's father Javed Akhtar's poetry as a voiceover because they felt the poetry added depth to the characters and lent voice to their feelings.[19] A special poem inspired by a fan's poem was written for Katrina Kaif's character after she was cast in the project.[20] The first choice for the location of principal photography was Mexico, but was later changed to Spain because the climax features the running of bulls and Zoya wanted a country that blended history, culture, and sports.[19] The film's release date was postponed twice because its original editor Chandan Arora fell ill and they had to re-edit it.[21]
Initially, the producers wanted Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan to play two of the three leads, but they declined without specifying a reason.[22] Farhan Akhtar had worked with Zoya on her debut film Luck by Chance (2009) and also wrote dialogue for the film; Zoya felt he would know exactly what she wanted from the film.[23] He was the first actor to be cast in the film.[24] Farhan Akhtar defined his role as a "fun character" and a "guy who for the longest time takes nothing seriously".[18] Hrithik Roshan was chosen for another lead role because he was one of Zoya's favourite actors.[25] After finalising the two, she needed someone "who could not just fit in with them visually but also bring something new to the table." She sought Abhay Deol for the role, as he was her friend and had worked with her before in Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. (2007)[23]
For the role of Laila, Zoya wanted someone with an accent who would be willing to scuba dive,[25] and was a half-Indian and half-Caucasian woman. A lot of women were auditioned for the part in New York and London. Later, at a party, Zoya met Katrina Kaif and chose her for the role.[15] Her role was described as "a free- spirited girl, a wanderer at heart and a bohemian gypsy by nature".[20] Zoya had wanted to work with Kalki Koechlin ever since seeing her in Dev.D (2009) and That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011); she felt Koechlin would suit the character of Natasha because she had "the sense of comedy, but not over-the-top".[26] Spanish actress Ariadna Cabrol was chosen for the role of Nuria because Zoya liked her work in the 2009 Spanish film Elose's Lover.[23]
Principal photography began in June 2010 and took place in the United Kingdom, Egypt, Mumbai, and in Spain at Barcelona, Pamplona, Buol and Andalusia.[27][28] Cinematographer Carlos Catalan, who had worked with Zoya on Luck by Chance, wanted all three lead actors to appear tanned because he "didn't want everything glossed over" and wanted to make the film as realistic as possible.[19]
The film's marketers released branded promotional items with Mountain Dew,[42] Gillette[43] and ING Vysya Bank.[44] A mobile video game based on Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and the La Tomatina festival was released by Jump Games on 19 July 2011 for popular mobile operating systems.[45] OPIUM Eyewear launched exclusive Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara sunglasses[46] to promote the film.
The release of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was initially scheduled for 27 May 2011,[47] but was postponed to 24 June 2011[48] and again to 15 July 2011. It was released in 1,800 screens worldwide.[49] A special screening of the film was held at the residence of Shah Rukh Khan on 16 July, on the occasion of Kaif's birthday. The event was attended by several celebrities, including the film's cast and crew.[50] The far-right political party Shiv Sena criticised the event because it was held three days after the 2011 Mumbai bombings.[51] The producers of the film donated the collections of the film from around 10 theatres in Mumbai to the Maharashtra government as a mark of charity to the victims of the bombings.[52] On 24 March 2012, ZNMD was screened at Bucks New University in High Wycombe, England.[53]
The film was released on DVD on 30 August 2011.[54] It is available in Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo formats with English and Arabic subtitles.[55] The film is also available on Blu-ray disc. Later on, the film was made available in both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara garnered widespread acclaim from critics who praised its direction, story, screenplay, music, humor, cinematography and performances of the ensemble cast. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 14 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10.[57]
Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph called Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara "a beautifully scripted journey of catharsis" and praised director Zoya Akhtar for being "fearless in the way she shoots".[58] In his review for Hindustan Times, Mayank Shekhar gave the film four stars praised the film as "a game-changer for Hindi films since Dil Chahta Hai (2001), and wrote, "What you take home are memorable, amusing moments of three truly adventurous amigos we've all grown up with. And will continue to."[59] Shivesh Kumar of IndiaWeekly awarded the film 4 stars.[60] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3.5/5, calling it a film for "a more evolved, mature and cinema-literate audience that's geared up to embrace and support newer genres of cinema".[61] Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film 3.5/5 stars and lauded its lead performances; "If Abhay is the anchor of the group, Farhan's funster role is full of beans and Hrithik's metamorphosis from uptight, money-minded stock broker to carefree vagabond is a class act".[62]
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