Batti Gul Meter Chalu

About the film

Batti Gul Meter Chalu (transl. Lights off, meter on; Hindi pronunciation: [bət̪t̪iː gʊl miːʈəɾ tʃaːluː]) is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language legal drama film directed by Shree Narayan Singh, written by Siddharth–Garima and produced by T-Series and KriArj Entertainment. The film tells the story of inflated electricity bills in rural India. It stars Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Yami Gautam and Divyendu Sharma.

Principal photography commenced in February 2018 in Tehri, Uttarakhand and was completed in July 2018. The film was released worldwide on 21 September 2018 and received negative reviews from critics who criticised the execution and running time, but praised its message, humour, cast performances and cinematography.

Plot

Sushil Kumar "S.K." Pant, Lalita "Nauti" Nautiyal and Sundar Mohan Tripathi are childhood friends based in Tehri, Uttarakhand. S.K. is an unscrupulous lawyer making money from out-of-court settlements. Nauti is an over the top fashion designer who thinks highly of herself. Wanting to get married, she decides to date both her childhood friends, each for a week. Things turn sour as S.K catches Nauti and Tripathi kissing. Heartbroken, he starts taunting and avoiding them.

Tripathi's small town printing press is charged with an inflated electricity bill of ₹150,000 (US$1,600), which escalates to ₹5.4 million (US$57,000) in the following months. He along with Nauti visit S.K for a solution, but instead, he insults them. With nowhere to go, Tripathi commits suicide. S.K is taken aback by the events and has a change of heart. He decides to fight out against SPTL, the privatised electricity company responsible for the inflated bills. SPTL has Gulnaar Rizvi as their lawyer against SK for the case.

On the last sitting of case with S.K about to win, Tripathi resurfaces and reveals about his suicide attempt and his struggles regarding inflated bills. The Court clears Tripathi's bill and cancels SPTL's License. It also orders them to pay Tripathi ₹1 million (US$10,000), and others ₹40,000 (US$420) with similar complaints as a compensation. Tripathi is sentenced to six months of simple imprisonment for trying to dupe insurance company with his fake death. Gulnaar and S.K. are shown to be dating post the case.

Production

Principal photography began in February 2018 with Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in Tehri, Uttarakhand. The first and second schedule of the film got wrapped in February 2018 and March 2018 respectively. Since, KriArj Entertainment, which was producing the film firstly got into financial troubles, the shoot of the film was kept on a halt, which finally got resumed in May 2018 and was wrapped up in June 2018. After the final schedule in July 2018, the film was finally wrapped up in the same month.

Director Shree Narayan Singh had already signed Shahid Kapoor to play a lawyer fighting against Faulty Electricity Meters and Inflated Bills in a local town of Uttarakhand. Later, Yami Gautam was signed as an opposition lawyer against Shahid Kapoor in the film. For the role of Lalita Nautiyal a.k.a. Nauti, actresses like Katrina Kaif, Ileana D'Cruz and Sonakshi Sinha were approached but later, it was confirmed that Shraddha Kapoor would be playing this role in the film.

Marketing and release

The film was originally slated to release on 31 August 2018 but was pushed to 14 September 2018 to avoid the clash with Shraddha Kapoor's other film, Stree starring Rajkummar Rao. The financial troubles faced by KriArj Entertainment lead to delays in the shooting of the film.

Later, it was announced that the film would have a worldwide release on 21 September 2018. The teaser of the film was released by T-Series on 18 October 2017. The trailer of the movie was released on 10 August 2018. Following a special screening on 20 September attended by the cast the film finally was released on 20 September 2018 in UAE and 21 September worldwide. The film had its TV world premiere on Zee Cinema on 16 February 2019.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Anu Malik, Rochak Kohli, Sachet–Parampara while the lyrics were penned by Siddharth-Garima and Manoj Muntashir. The songs featured in the film are sung Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Arijit Singh, Atif Aslam, Mika Singh, Nakash Aziz, Prakriti Kakar and Sachet Tandon. The album of the film was by released T-Series on 5 September 2018. The music supervision was assisted by Vatsal Chevli.

Reception

Batti Gul Meter Chalu generally received negative reviews from critics. The film was lauded for its message, humor, performances and cinematography. The movie's running time and story execution faced criticism. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, 18% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10.

DNA in its 3.5 stars review criticized the storyline but praised the performance of Shahid Kapoor. " Shahid is top-notch. The actor, who is in his prime, has matured into a fine talent and shows that he can shoulder a film on his own. Half a star in the film's rating is reserved only for Shahid."

Rachit Gupta from The Times of India in his 3 stars review questioned the screenplay saying, "BGMC loses power under the load of its heavy-duty screenplay." He, however praised Shahid & Shraddha's performance adding, "Shahid is able to blend a fine balance between the over-confident young man and the guy with a heart of gold. His monologue during the climax is superb. Shraddha Kapoor plays the peppy small town girl with panache."

Key details