Mumbai, March 27 Filmmaker Mohit Suri shared the moment he realized that “Saiyaara” had resonated with people, recalling how a song turned into a hit right on the set when even junior artistes spontaneously began singing along during the shoot.
Suri was on actress-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt’s podcast, where he spoke about the unexpected viral success of the music of his romantic drama “Saiyaara,” starring Ahan Panday and Aneet Padda.
Mohit said in the podcast: “Honestly, there were things that I didn't want. For example, there was this big tree on the set, and at YRF, they had a large VFX team, and they kept coming to me and asking, 'Sir, what do you want to do about the tree?' And I was like, 'It doesn't matter.'”
Suri further revealed that several song sequences were shot on a single, reused set, highlighting his preference for efficiency over extravagance.
“I don't know if you know that all the sets for the songs are one set. I reused the same set again… The crowd was only there for one day; there was no crowd for all the days. Now that I had the money, I realized that when you have a crowd of 500 people, you're going to be thinking more about the crowd than the emotion.”
He added: “What I did was I called 100 people for one day and shot only the emotion. Once I was happy, I was like, 'Get in the crowd.'”
The filmmaker said this approach reminded him of his earlier days working with Vishesh Films, where limitations often pushed creators to focus on storytelling over scale.
Suri shared: “You know, I had to go back to working in the Vishesh Films way. If you're going to use all that money, you can't do it.”
During the conversation, Pooja pointed out a standout moment where the crowd organically began singing along, calling it a powerful cinematic high. Suri agreed that the moment also surprised him.
“The funniest part is that they were so hesitant about their songs and music, and suddenly the whole crowd was singing it…”
“That was a good feeling because I saw people singing, normally the junior artistes are so disinterested, and then you realize they are singing the song, and you're like…” Suri said, adding that he even suggested stopping the track mid-shoot to let the crowd take over.
“I told Vijay, ‘Just stop the music and let the crowd sing…’ That was the best way to show that the song became a hit…”
“Saiyaara” was released theatrically in 2025. It was a major commercial success, becoming the third highest-grossing Hindi film of 2025, and the highest-grossing Indian romantic film of all time.
The film’s soundtrack proved to be particularly popular, with its lead single “Saiyaara” topping several Indian and global music charts, remaining in the top ten for multiple weeks after its release.