Tere Naam

About the film

Tere Naam (; English title: In Your Name) is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language tragedy romantic drama film directed by Satish Kaushik and written by Jainendra Jain. The film stars Salman Khan and Bhumika Chawla in her Hindi cinema debut. It is a remake of the Tamil film Sethu (1999).

The film was based on a real-life incident of a friend of Bala's, who had fallen in love, lost his mind, and ended up at a mental asylum. Considered as cult classic, Tere Naam was released on 15 August 2003 and became a moderate box-office success, although its soundtrack album was a major success. Salman Khan was praised for his portrayal of Radhe Mohan, and the role is widely considered one of the finest performances of his career.

Plot

The film centres around a tough college student and graduate jobless rowdy Radhe Mohan, who leads the Student Union and has a violent temper. He lives with his elder brother Shiv, a court magistrate, and often clashes with him. Only his sister-in-law Gayatri seems to truly understand him.

Radhe wins the Student Union election and gets into a fight during the celebrations. Though aggressive, he begins to change after meeting Nirjara, a timid Brahmin girl. Radhe helps her some times, and she seems to like him a bit. One day, Radhe proposes to her and jokingly remarks that he will beat her father up if he doesn't agree to their marriage. Nirjara is too shocked to say much and utters "yes" when Radhe asks her if she was listening to him. Radhe interprets this as her acceptance of the proposal. Later he and his friends intimidate Nirjara fiancé, Rameshwar. The next day, Radhe brings her a gift, but she tells him that she does not love him and calls him a goon. A heartbroken Radhe subsequently tries to talk to her, but she refuses to engage in a conversation.

Radhe's friends suggest that he give up rowdyism and violence to impress Nirjara but one day, he roughs up a goon who had beaten up one of his friends. As Radhe is about to punch him. Nirjara arrives at the scene, and Radhe stops the violence and allowing the goon to escape. Subsequently, Nirjara's elder sister Mamta, who is in need of money, is nearly tricked into prostitution when she unknowingly visits a brothel to meet a man who promises her a loan. Radhe, who does not know that she is Nirjara's sister, visits the same brothel to find a man who had harassed a woman and had hit his friend for intervening. He saves Mamta from being arrested during a police raid. She tells him that her husband Aatmaram has kicked her out of their house and is demanding money to give her custody of their son. the next day, Radhe beats up Aatmaram, forcing him to take her back and to stop harassing her. Rameshwar sees this and tells Nirjara that Radhe is a good selfless man who truly loves her. unaware of this conversation, Radhe abducts Nirjara (which is the opposite of what Rameshwar was saying about him) so that she would listen to him to express his feelings for her. Nirjara initially feels intimidated but ultimately falls in love with him.

Production

Anurag Kashyap was originally hired to direct the film but later removed from the film as he wanted Salman Khan to not shave his chest as the character of Radhe hailed from Uttar Pradesh where men are known to be very raw in terms of appearance. Satish Kaushik later took over. Ameesha Patel was originally considered to play the role of Nirjara, but scheduling conflicts prevented her from accepting. The role went to Bhumika Chawla, who made her Bollywood debut in the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film consists of 12 songs. The music is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and Sajid - Wajid with lyrics by Sameer and Jalees Sherwani.

Vocals for Salman Khan were supplied by Udit Narayan in all the songs except Lagan Lagi, which was sung by Sukhwinder Singh. Alka Yagnik provided vocals for Bhumika Chawla.

Upon its release, the soundtrack album became a massive hit with its songs gaining huge popularity and becoming chartbusters. The soundtrack sold around 3 million copies becoming the highest selling Indian music album of the year in India.

Release

The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on 13 December 2010 by Eros International.

In early 2026, it was announced that the film would be re-released in theatres on 27 February 2026 to commemorate its 23rd anniversary.

Critical reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama awarded 3/5 stars and wrote, "Salman is exceptional in a role that fits him to the T. He breathes fire in sequences that demand uneasiness. But beneath the tough exterior lies a vulnerable person and this facet in particular comes to the fore in the latter reels. His emotional outbursts are splendid..., Bhoomika Chawla reminds you of Bhagyashree. Her simple, humble, traditionally indian character should go down very well with the viewers. Her performance is first-rate".

Madhureeta Mukherjee of The Times of India said, "Salman has given the great performance in the film. He's given an intense, unconventional performance. Believe this is the best performance of Salman's career so far".

Box office

The film's total gross was ₹24.54 crore worldwide and was a moderate commercial success.

Key details