Even as critics slam Kabir Singh for promoting toxic masculinity and misogyny, the audience have received the Shahid Kapoor-starrer with love. The film is expected to cross the Rs 250-crore mark soon at the box office, having earned almost Rs 240 crore already. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh called KabirSingh a lottery. “Continues to surprise with solid trending on [third] Mon... Will cross *lifetime biz* of Simmba today [Tue]... Inches closer to Uri... Fri 5.40 cr, Sat 7.51 cr, Sun 9.61 cr, Mon 4.25 cr. Total: ₹ 239.97 cr. India biz,” he reported.

With Kabir Singh becoming his biggest solo hit ever, Shahid has said that the film -- an official remake of Arjun Reddy -- was quite challenging for him. Directed by Sandeep Vanga Reddy, the film also stars Kiara Advani.

#KabirSingh is a lottery... Continues to surprise with solid trending on [third] Mon... Will cross *lifetime biz* of #Simmba today [Tue]... Inches closer to #Uri... Fri 5.40 cr, Sat 7.51 cr, Sun 9.61 cr, Mon 4.25 cr. Total: ₹ 239.97 cr. India biz.

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) July 9, 2019

Writing for Mumbai Mirror in an article Shahid said, “The part I was apprehensive about was the one in which I had to portray a younger avatar. At 38, I was expected to play a boy of 25. Today’s audience is much evolved and won’t overlook any discrepancies in appearance, knowing that I worked hard to get my look right. I play a surgeon in the film, and here I must mention that my director Sandeep Vanga who is a qualified physiotherapist himself was of great help. I did my basic R&D too, but beyond that, I wanted to find the character and not just focus on his profession.”

He also talked about the physical changes he had to go through for the film: “For my just-released film Kabir Singh, I had to create three different silhouettes, one of which needed me to be out of shape. My normal weight is around 71-72 kg, I had to add on over five kg, going up to 76-77 kg, a lot of it fat, and look destroyed in those scenes. It was challenging but also, I admit, very exciting at the same time.”

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He also talked about other films that he found challenging. “Strangely, I have not needed a coach for any of my films, except for the one that I have for my workouts, to oversee my physical prep. Only for Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab, in which I played Tommy Singh, we had a dialect coach on the set. Now that I think of it, I had one for a scene in Kabir Singh too where I speak Punjabi. It was to make sure that I am not mispronouncing anything and that my lines would flow naturally and organically on screen. Being a Punjabi myself, I know and understand the language well, but since I have grown up speaking in English and Hindi, I am not too fluent in it. So, I spent a few hours working on my dialogue delivery before facing the camera.”

Earlier, sharing his thoughts on Kabir Singh’s success, Shahid had written: “Your love is so overwhelming words will always fall short. Thank you for understanding him forgiving him and loving him with all your heart. We all fall apart. And we all must strive to rise from our faults. To be better. To be wiser. To be kinder.”

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First Published: Jul 09, 2019 11:59 IST