Mohit Suri says even people who didn’t believe in him later called Saiyaara their win: ‘I remember telling my wife…’
Updated on: Oct 11, 2025 10:57 am IST
Mohit Suri touched upon how the success of Saiyaara changed people’s attitudes towards him, particularly those of his competitors.
Mohit Suri’s comeback to the romance genre with Saiyaara has been nothing short of spectacular. The director gave Hindi cinema’s biggest hit of the year with debutants Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda. The success of the film was so vast that Mohit realised that even those who had put him down later claimed the film’s victory.
Mohit Suri on Saiyaara’s success
Speaking at a session of the recently held FICCI Frames about the success of Saiyaara, Mohit said, “I remember when we had screenings on the day of release, and Ahaan’s family was seeing it and my family had seen it that day, and I remember the opening day box office numbers started coming in. The amount of love coming our way, I knew this was rare. This love was humbling. I remember telling my wife this for the whole week after that, or a month, I think, that every evening don’t disturb me, everyone’s calling because they watched the film from all over the world.”
The session was held on day two of FICCI Frames in Mumbai on October 8, where Mohit was joined by the film’s producer and YRF CEO Akshay Widhani.
Everyone felt it was their win
Mohit added that the film changed many people’s attitudes towards him, particularly his competitors. “Competitors, people who didn’t believe in me, other producers. Surprisingly, they all felt it was their win, and I’ve never seen love like this for a film in the 20 years that I’ve been making films. I’ve been the underdog praised, I’ve been the top dog pulled down. I’ve got everything, yeah, it’s expected. I think it became everyone’s liberated move to love this film. Because I think quintessentially, nothing was planned by design while making or promoting this film. We just went with total honesty and purity while making and promoting, we stuck to the basics and took the film to the audience. And that worked.”
About Saiyaara
Saiyaara marked the acting debut of Ahaan Panday, while it was the female lead Aneet Padda’s first lead role in a film. Prior to this, she had a cameo in Salaam Venky along with a lead role in the Prime Video series Big Girls Don’t Cry. Saiyaara grossed ₹570 crore worldwide, making it the highest-grossing love story in the history of Indian cinema.
