What's Your Raashee? | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Ashutosh Gowariker |
Produced by |
Ronnie Screwvala Sunita A. Gowariker |
Screenplay by | Naushil Mehta Ashutosh Gowariker |
Based on |
Kimball Ravenswood by Madhu Rye |
Starring | |
Music by | Sohail Sen |
Cinematography | Piyush Shah |
Edited by | Ballu Saluja |
Production
company |
UTV Motion Pictures
Ashutosh Gowariker Productions |
Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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211 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Box office | ₹160 million |
What's Your Raashee? (English: What's Your Zodiac Sign?) is a 2009 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. It was produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Sunita A. Gowariker. The film stars Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra, with Darshan Jariwala and Dilip Joshi in supporting roles. The film is based on the Gujarati novel Kimball Ravenswood by the playwright and novelist Madhu Rye, and follows the story of Yogesh Patel, a Gujarati NRI, who must marry in ten days to save his brother from harm; Yogesh agrees to meet twelve potential brides (all played by Chopra), one from each zodiac sign.
Gowariker had always aspired to make a romantic comedy and was inspired to adapt Rye's novel into a feature film after watching a play based on the same source material. Later, he bought the rights and co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Naushil Mehta. In the process, several plot changes were made for the cinematic adaptation, notably the similarity between the twelve girls, and the ending. Since Gowariker was against using prosthetics to create the twelve characters, Chopra worked on her body language and her voice to make them distinct. Principal photography was extensively done at sixty-seven locations across Mumbai, and partly in Baroda and Chicago. The soundtrack, consisting of thirteen songs, each representing an astrological sign and one compilation, was composed by Sohail Sen, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar.
The film's master copy was stolen from Adlabs before its release, and a few days later was recovered by the police, who found and seized several pirated copies of the film created from the master copy. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 25 September 2009. With a box office gross ₹160 million, it was unsuccessful and received mixed reviews, with criticism for its over three-and-a-half-hour run time and its screenplay. However, the film garnered acclaim for its soundtrack and Chopra's performance, which received a nomination for the Screen Award for Best Actress. She also became the first actress in history to portray twelve roles in one film, a feat considered for inclusion in the Guinness World Records.