De De Pyaar De

About the film

De De Pyaar De (transl. Give Me Love) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written by Luv Ranjan and directed by Akiv Ali in his directorial debut. Produced by Luv Films, it stars Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Rakul Preet Singh. In the film, chaos ensues when a middle-aged NRI and would-be divorcé is smitten with a woman almost half his age and introduces her to his family, including his estranged wife and children.

Pre-production began in February 2017, and filming commenced on 19 January 2018 in Mumbai. The production further took place in London and Kullu Manali, before wrapping up in August 2018. The film was released on 17 May 2019, and was a commercial success, grossing ₹143 crore (US$15 million) worldwide.

Plot

Ashish Chawla is a 50-year-old NRI investor in London who meets a 26-year-old woman, Ayesha Bhasin. The two begin dating and then start living together. Ashish informs her that he is separated from his wife Manju, who lives in India with their children, Ishika and Ishaan. After a back and forth regarding their age gap, Ashish decides to introduce Ayesha to his family and takes her to his home in Manali. Manju and their children are now living with Ashish's parents. Ishika is irritated by her father's arrival, believing that he will ruin the meeting with her boyfriend Rishi and his father Atul Saxena.

Startled, Ashish lies that Ayesha is his secretary, much to her chagrin. Ayesha and Manju feel tension over their feelings for Ashish. Due to circumstances, Ashish is introduced as Manju's brother to Rishi and Atul. Ayesha and Manju fail to get along with each other. After finally noticing that Ayesha and Ashish are together, Ishika shouts at her father for lying to his entire family. Ashish finally reveals that he brought Ayesha to gain his family's approval. Atul also learns the truth and calls off Ishika and Rishi's wedding, as he feels the family is not reliable. Manju defends Ashish and Ayesha’s relationship in front of their entire family, following which Ashish also consoles Manju and sleeps with her.

The next morning, Ayesha finds out that Manju and Ashish slept together, and Manju responds that she is still his wife and Ayesha is technically the other woman. Disheartened, Ayesha returns to London. Ashish convinces Atul for the marriage between Ishika and Rishi, but begins missing Ayesha. When Ishika's engagement arrangements are in full swing, Manju realises the true longing the couple have for each other and goes to London to ask Ayesha to give Ashish a second chance. Ayesha reconciles with Ashish and celebrates Ishika's engagement. In a post-credits scene, Ashish and Ayesha argue on whether they should meet Ayesha’s family.

Production

In February 2017, Luv Ranjan confirmed that Ajay Devgn had committed to star in an untitled "urban comedy" film to be written by Ranjan and produced by Ranjan and Ankur Garg. The "contemporary rom-com" was to be helmed by film editor Akiv Ali, who had previously worked as editor on all three of Ranjan's films upto that point, among others, in his directorial debut. Devgn played a 50-year-old in the film, the first time he played a character his real age; he attributed it to "meatier roles.. being written for actors of [his] age [so that the] audience accepts it". It was also his first romance film in years. Devgn mentioned that the film's premise followed "strong woman characters[,] and there's also a nice message".

In May 2017, a member of the film's crew confirmed that Tabu was confirmed to play one of the film's female leads opposite Devgn, marking her seventh collaboration with the actor; their last production together at the time was Golmaal Again (2017). According to Tabu, the film highlights the differences in "[t]he way a mid-40s couple deals with their relationship, their definition of love and relationship will be different than a 27-year-old woman. Her insecurities are different and issues are varied". Jimmy Sheirgill's inclusion in the cast in a supporting role as the love interest of Tabu's character, was confirmed in late April 2018. Sheirgill had previously shared screen space with Tabu for the 1996 film Maachis, which was also his film debut.

After the success of their maiden collaboration on the sleeper hit Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018), Luv Films (owned by Ranjan and Garg) and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series formed a mutual understanding to continue their collaboration by co-producing a series of films, the first of which was De De Pyaar De. In mid-January 2018, Rakul Preet Singh, who had earlier made her debut with the T-Series production Yaariyan, was signed in as a female lead opposite Devgn. According to Ranjan, Singh's "natural persona fit[ted] the character to the tee". In February 2018, Singh confirmed her casting and said she had "a meaty role", but couldn't reveal more details at the time.

Music

The film's soundtrack was composed by Amaal Mallik, Rochak Kohli, Tanishk Bagchi, Vipin Patwa and Manj Musik, with lyrics written by Kumaar, Kunaal Vermaa, Garry Sandhu, Mellow D and Tanishk Bagchi. It was released by T-Series on 15 May 2019.

Tanishk Bagchi recreated Garry Sandhu's single Yeah Baby as "Hauli Hauli" with additional voice of Neha Kakkar and rap by Mellow D.

Key details