What's Your Raashee?

Deep within a quaint rural village, an elderly man receives a card in the mail from his youngest grandson, Yogesh Patel (Harman Baweja). Over in Mumbai, Yogesh's family consults an astrologer to learn if their eldest son, Jitendra "Jitu" Patel (Dilip Joshi), a debtor, will go to jail, and also gives him Yogesh's birthdate to learn his future. They are astonished to hear that Yogesh will inherit a fortune if he is married on the 20th of that month; the phone rings, and the family is overjoyed to hear that Yogesh's grandfather has made him his sole heir. Yogesh is successful and lives in Chicago. He gets a text message from Jitu that his father Bharat (Anjan Srivastav) had a heart attack, and rushes to Mumbai. When he arrives, Yogesh learns that Jitu had lied to him about Bharat, but that Jitu owes a rich man 25 million rupees for gambling debts; if Yogesh does not marry on the 20th of the month, Jitu will go to jail. At first Yogesh is adamant he will not marry, but Jitu tells him that he also borrowed 15 million rupees from a mob boss; his parents are unaware of this. Yogesh is annoyed, but agrees to marry after the gangster threatens them. Yogesh's uncle, Devu (Darshan Jariwala), subsequently posts a matrimonial ad with Yogesh's photo, and 176 girls reply. Yogesh decides that he will meet one girl from each zodiac sign. Meanwhile, Devu's wife Kanta asks Bharat to hire a detective – she suspects that Devu is cheating on her. When Bharat learns that the astrologer is also a detective, he hires him. The detective identifies Devu's mistress as a woman named Anila Kamdar. After Yogesh has met most of the girls, one of them, Sanjana, asks to talk to him privately. She says to him that a boy has agreed to marry her, but she is reluctant. She asks Yogesh to give her time to decide what to do about her boyfriend. He agrees, telling her about his problems with Jitu. Sanjana, touched that Yogesh will help her despite his own problems, hugs him. Devu walks in, and thinks he has interrupted them; Sanjana chases him, trying to explain. Tailing Devu, the detective is unaware that he had been with Anila at a hotel and sees him with Sanjana. Sanjana shows Devu a picture; when he says something supposedly demeaning, she becomes angry and tries to leave. Devu stops her, holding her while she cries before they leave in his car. The detective convinces Yogesh and his father that Devu is having an affair with Sanjana. Anila then comes downstairs, looking for Devu. Yogesh shows her the photos, telling her that Devu and Sanjana went to Khandala, a hill station near Mumbai. The detective tells Kanta this story, and they find Devu at a hotel with Sanjana. Devu thinks Yogesh betrayed him, and Yogesh thinks Devu is having an affair with Sanjana. After seeing the last girl, Yogesh's mother Shakuntala beseeches him to choose with his heart instead of his mind. Yogesh sees all of the girls in a dream, and in the morning decides who he will marry. He goes to Rajni's office because she offered a 50-million-rupee dowry, and is relieved to discover that she is marrying someone else. Yogesh goes to Devu's house to tell him he wants to marry Vishakha, but Devu calls her and rejects her. He says there is no need for Yogesh to marry her; he knows about Jitu's debt, and says he will choose Yogesh's bride himself. Yogesh is impatient, but Devu keeps the bride a secret. When she enters, Yogesh cannot tell who she is. When the ceremony ends, Devu welcomes the father of the bride: Sanjana's father. Yogesh is stunned when his grandfather brings the money to pay Jitu's debts. He asks Devu how he arranged the marriage; Devu explains that when Sanjana followed him and showed him a picture of her boyfriend, he remembered seeing the boyfriend kissing another woman in Khandala. He brought Sanjana to a hotel in Khandala to confront her boyfriend. Sanjana told him she would marry Yogesh, having realised that she loves him. The film ends with the marriage attendants asking Sanjana's astrological sign. Sanjana asks Yogesh what her raashee is, to which he says he does not know, and smiles. == Cast and characters ==

Cast The cast is listed below: Characters The character description for each of the characters played by Priyanka Chopra in a twelve roles is listed below: == Production ==

Development Ashutosh Gowariker had always aspired to make a comedy; however, after making the historical drama Jodhaa Akbar (2008), he wanted to make a "frothy" romance or "something non-historical, light and fun". He had always wanted to make a romantic comedy along the lines of ''It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Roman Holiday (1953), Chupke Chupke (1975), Baaton Baaton Mein (1979), or When Harry Met Sally...'' (1989). He read the source material to learn more about it and then bought the novel's film rights. Rye said that the novel can be considered a cunningly crafted sex thriller driven by devilish characters while also being both a "side-splitting tingly comic" story as well as "a profound study of human nature." The ending was altered by the writers; the protagonist chooses a completely different girl in the film than the one he selects in the novel. Rye was concerned about the reactions of viewers who had read the novel, and it took Gowariker a while to convince him to agree. While writing the screenplay, Mehta and Gowariker decided to have one song for each zodiac sign to bring out the personality of each sign and its related girl. They had to write each character with different nuances. Casting portrayed twelve distinct characters in the film. The casting of the lead pair was leaked well before the intended official announcements. Gowariker cast Harman Baweja after watching the trailer of his debut film, the science fiction romance Love Story 2050 (2008). On being asked about the decision of casting one actress to portray twelve characters, Gowariker said: "If we had taken twelve different actresses then the most beautiful one would have to be chosen. So beauty would get more importance. But by taking one girl to play all twelve roles, the importance shifts to the characters." At the time, Chopra described the film as the "most difficult and important" in her career. She found playing twelve characters equivalent to performing in twelve different films. She had to have a different look for each of them but had very little time to prepare and establish each character on screen, since each character had "one song and about two scenes". Since all the characters except one were between ages eighteen and twenty-four, Chopra found it difficult to make every character look distinct. Chopra also read Linda Goodman's Sun Signs and Love Signs to prepare for the parts. Initially, it was planned to film one character at a time, however, that did not happen. The art direction was handled by Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Piyush Shah did the cinematography, and Ballu Saluja edited the film. It had a single start-to-finish schedule and was filmed at 65 different locations across Mumbai. Gowariker remarked that shooting this film was more challenging than Jodhaa Akbar because of filming at so many locations. He found it more time-consuming and challenging but also called it an exciting experience. Chopra also had to learn jazz dance for one of the characters. At one point, Chopra fainted on the set and Gowariker wanted to postpone the filming, but she insisted on finishing the scenes. Her heavy workloadfilming for several productions, travelling for endorsements, and performing at live showstook its toll; she was admitted to hospital because of exhaustion and was kept under observation. After spending three days in hospital, she was discharged and immediately resumed filming to avoid delaying her other projects. Filming was completed by the first week of May 2009. == Soundtrack ==

Initially, Gowariker wanted to hire A. R. Rahman, who had composed the music for his earlier films. Gowariker wanted thirteen songs for the film, but Rahman did not have time to compose them, and they agreed not to work together on the film. The album contains thirteen original songs written by Javed Akhtar. The vocals were performed by Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Shaan, Madhushree, Bela Shende, Pamela Jain, Bhavya Pandit, and Tarannum Mallik, while Sen performs most of the songs. Gowariker and his sister Ashlesha also provided the vocals for two different songs on the album. The Hindustan Times rated the album 3 out of 5, commending the composer and calling it a decent album. The BBC praised the album and wrote "Sohail Sen shows he can successfully compete with the best in Bollywood." == Release ==

The first-look poster of the film was released in January 2009. It resembled a book cover and was designed by Nabeel Abbas. The first teaser, featuring all twelve female characters along with the male protagonist, swaying to the title song, was released in July 2009. To promote the film, the makers teamed up with Facebook to develop an application for users to check their compatibility with their partners as well as to make new friends based on their sun sign. This required users to answer questions about their personal preferences; based on common characteristics with other signs, a list of users with whom they were compatible was shown and they were offered the opportunity to add those people as friends. When Gowariker learnt about the incident, he lodged a police complaint immediately. The case was taken over by the Mumbai Crime Branch. Several people were arrested, including the manager of Adlabs Processing, for allegedly stealing the master copy and producing pirated copies. The print was later recovered by the police, who also found and seized pirated CDs and DVDs produced from the master copy. ''What's Your Raashee?'' was produced by Ronnie Screwvala at UTV Motion Pictures in collaboration with Ashutosh Gowariker Productions, with Gowariker's wife, Sunita, serving as the producer. The film was released on 25 September 2009. It had a good opening at the multiplexes but poor attendance elsewhere. Following criticism of the film's excessive length, in mid-week, three songs were cut from the film's theatrical prints to reduce the length of the film. However, the new length was still over three hours, and it was not confirmed if the length was reduced on all of the prints across India. During its run, it grossed 160 million at the box office and was considered as a financial failure. Two weeks after the theatrical release, ''What's Your Raashee?'' was released for pay-per-view viewing on various DTH platforms such as Tata Sky, Airtel Digital TV, and Dish TV. Distributed by UTV Home Entertainment, the film was released on DVD on 10 December 2009 across all regions, with no bonus content. VCD versions were released at the same time. Blu-ray versions were released in 2011. UTV Indiagames also released a mobile video game based on the film. == Critical reception ==

''What's Your Raashee?'' received mixed reviews from critics who criticised the screenplay and its runtime of over three-and-a-half hours. However, Chopra's performance received widespread critical acclaim. Subhash K. Jha gave the film a positive review, calling it "a lovely uncluttered unassuming and transparent film". He also praised Baweja and Chopra's performances and the chemistry between the actors. Jha appreciated Chopra's portrayal of twelve characters, calling it "an amazing achievement", and wrote: "Priyanka gives soul to all the 12 characters she plays. In the climactic song, she brings all of them together, quirks and mannerisms all on display in one unified flow of feelings and body-language. The actress achieves individuality for all her characters while giving the plot a homogeneous flow." Several critics had mixed feelings about the film. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com praised the subtle and refreshing humour, noting that "Gowariker shows a flair for light scenes and creating atmospheric nuances" but criticising the loopy screenplay. She called it "ultimately a performance-oriented film", stating: "A terrific ensemble cast from the world of television and theatre collaborate to its feel-good believability which lasts as long as their screen time." Namrata Joshi of Outlook gave the film 2 stars out of 4. She thought that Chopra played her characters "competently, confidently but a bit unevenly" and wrote: "The one trump card for the film is the new queen bee Priyanka Chopra. The film is out-and-out a Priyanka show as she hogs screen time and audience attention with her 12 roles." Shubhra Gupra of The Indian Express was particularly critical of the length of the film and wrote: "Ashutosh Gowariker's latest, which stretches close to four hours running time, starts feeling like bargain-basement from the get go. It's much too long, and, despite Priyanka's valiant efforts, just not engaging enough." Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave it a negative review, criticising the writing and the length and saying that "''What's Your Raashee?'' has some wonderful moments and award-worthy performance[s] by Priyanka Chopra, but everything pales into insignificance when the written material is weak." Anupama Chopra of NDTV was highly disappointed with the film, terming it a "gargantuan misstep" for Gowariker: "This epic length simply doesn't work for romance. At nearly four hours, ''What's Your Raashee?'' is a marathon watch. And the rewards for enduring it are slim." Sudhish Kamath was also disappointed with the film, criticising the time taken (over 25 minutes) in the first act to reach the first episode: "Priyanka Chopra acquits each of these types with unique quirks associated with these signs and is quite charming in most of her avatars, but there is seriously, no other reason for you to watch this movie." == Accolades ==