Singh Is Kinng  (Hindi: सिंह इज़ किंग, Urdu: سنگھ از کنگ, Punjabi: ਸਿੰਘ ਇਜ਼ ਕਿੰਗ) is a 2008 Bollywood film. The film is directed by Anees Bazmee and stars Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. About 75% of the movie was shot in Australia, around the Gold Coast region and Brisbane using an Australian production team (Instinct India). The film was released on 8 August 2008. Kumar has been nominated for Best Actor at the 3rd Asian Film Awards for his performance in the film.

The spelling of the word "king" in the film's title with an additional letter "n" was based on advice provided by a numerologist, a practice which has become routine in Bollywood.

Plot summary

The plot is loosely adapted from the Jackie Chan hit Miracles, also known as Mr. Canton and Lady Rose.

Lakhan Singh aka Lucky is the "kinng" of the Australian underworld. He is accompanied by his associates, Julie (Neha Dhupia), Mika (Jaaved Jaffrey), Pankaj Udaas (Yashpal Sharma), Raftaar (Sudhanshu Pandey) and Dilbaugh Singh (Manoj Pahwa). Far away in a small village in Punjab, where Lucky was born, there exists someone more notorious than him - Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar). Happy has caused many problems and disastrous situations in the village. The villagers are fed up of him. The villagers decide to send Happy on a long trip to Australia with his buddy, Rangeela (Om Puri) to bring Lucky back to Punjab, which will keep Happy out of the village for some while and bring peace to the village. At the airport, Happy and Rangeela's tickets to Australia get exchanged with a stranger's (Puneet's) ticket to Egypt and they reach the opposite places. In Egypt, Happy helps Sonia (Katrina Kaif) and falls deeply in love with her without expressing his love to Sonia. He leaves his love story and heads towards Australia to meet Lucky. Lucky refuses to return to his home-town and throws Happy and Rangeela out from his house. Penniless, Happy finds warmth and affection in an elderly lady (Kirron Kher) who provides him with food when he was starving in spite of being a stranger. Lucky lands up in hospital paralyzed after much mayhem caused by Happy, and Happy, unexpectedly is conferred the title of Kinng. Happy is not proud of his rank and is kind-hearted. The lady who helped Happy is really worried and depressed as her daughter is returning from Egypt with her wealthy boyfriend, Puneet(The Person At The Airport) (Ranvir Shorey). The daughter does not know that after the death of her father some time back, her mother is a poor flower seller. Happy gives the flower-seller his spacious house and makes all his mafia associates work as workers.

The lady's daughter arrives. She turns out to be Sonia with her boyfriend Puneet. Happy is heart-broken but he gives a happy appearance to Sonia. Puneet says that he too would have had a good time with Happy and Sonia in Egypt had his ticket to Egypt not been exchanged in the airport, because of which he landed up in Australia instead. Puneet is always jealous of Sonia being with Happy and doubts that something is on between them. Sonia and Puneet squabble about this topic but Happy handles it. Sonia falls in love with Happy. The truth is tough to hide. Sonia becomes aware that she is poor but her poverty was hidden from her by Happy who helped her mother. Puneet sets his heart to marry Sonia. Sonia gets trapped in an emotional tug-of-war between Puneet, who loves her, and Happy, whom she loved. Puneet meets a person to kill Happy. The person is Mika, the kinng's associate and brother. Puneet wants to kill Happy to keep Sonia away from him and Mika wants to kill Happy to become the Kinng. The marriage day dawns and there is firing (all because Julie drops some guns). Puneet hides while the pandit chants the mantras, his head totally covered by a pot, amidst gunfire all around, while Happy and Sonia are running together around the fire seven times. They eventually get married, making them a couple. Suddenly, Mika turns up on the spot, ready to kill Happy, armed with a gang and his new special glasses and hearing aid. As he is about to shoot, the paralyzed Lucky, now normal due to a bump on the head (which, incidentally, caused the paralysis in the first place), steps up and stops him.Then a dialogue ensues between Mika, Happy, Lucky and the associates of the kinng (sic). Then Happy tells him that being the "king" is no great thing. Lucky says he always found sadness being the king, because a true king doesn't fight for himself but for others and thus Mika, overcome by remorse, drops his revolver. The movie happily ends with Happy and Sonia married.

Cast

* Akshay Kumar as Happy Singh
* Katrina Kaif as Sonia
* Om Puri as Rangeela
* Kiron Kher as Rose Lady (Sonia's mom)
* Sonu Sood as Lucky Singh (Kinng)
* Ranvir Shorey as Puneet
* Javed Jaffrey as Mika Singh/Puneet's father
* Sudhanshu Pandey as Raftaar
* Neha Dhupia as Julie
* Yashpal Sharma as Pankaj Udaas(sad)
* Manoj Pahwa as Dilbaugh Singh
* Kamal Chopra as Guru ji
* Eli Bernstein as Disco Dancer
* Banu papa as Baby Boy
* Peter Coates as the pilot
* James Foster as another pilot

Music

The music was composed by . The song "Singh Is Kinng" was composed by the British bhangra band RDB. The soundtrack was launched officially at the IIFA Awards in Bangkok on June 8, 2008, where Akshay Kumar and RDB performed two songs from the soundtrack.

The film's music received particular attention in the United States due to the involvement of rapper Snoop Dogg, who has a cameo in the film performing the title song. Snoop Dogg's performance has been described as "the first time that a mainstream American artist has performed on a Bollywood soundtrack".

Crew

* Directed by Anees Bazmee
* Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah
* Distributed by Adlabs
* Music by Pritam and RDB
* Stunts by Allan Amin

Reaction from the Sikh community

Before the movie was released, it was reported that the Sikh community in Khar, Mumbai was very pleased with the portrayal of the Sikhs in the film. Vipul Shah, the producer of the film, was felicitated at the Khar Gurdwara on June 18, 2008. He said, "Our intention was to portray the community in the right way and I am glad that we have managed to achieve it."

Some members of the Sikh community had expressed their displeasure over the portrayal of Sikhs in the movie. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) announced that it was up to the audience to decide whether they want to watch the film or not.

On 1 August 2008, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) sought a ban on the movie, saying that it 'ridiculed' the Sikh community. It wrote a letter to Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, asking her to ban the movie.The main objection raised was that the film promos showed Akshay Kumar's character sporting a trimmed beard, which Sikhs found offensive as a Sikh should not trim his beard. Akshay Kumar and Vipul Shah had a 50-minute discussion with the DSGMC authorities, in which they explained the positive message behind the film. The DSGMC members requested twelve changes, which the filmmakers complied with. Akshay Kumar also said that the film was aimed at portraying "how strong and brave Sikh community is." As a result of the discussion, DSGMC gave a clean chit to the movie on 7 August 2008.

Review

The movie has been well received until now with most theatres outside India reporting 95%-100% attendance. Taran Adarsh, of indiafm.com stated, "Singh is Kinng lives up to the hype and hoopla. Want a joyride without taxing your brains? Board the SINGH IS KINNG wagon. At the box-office, the film will fetch a hurricane-like start. The paid previews, the opening weekend, the first week business, everything will be record-shattering. Notwithstanding the new oppositions in the weeks to come, Singh is Kinng will rule the hearts of the aam junta [whose verdict matters the most as also the box-office, proving a record holder in the final tally." NDTV India gave the movie 2.5/5 stars.Rediff gave it a 3.5/5. The film turned out to be such a great success that it was showcased at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Box office

Singh Is Kinng had a record opening in India. It opened to 95-100% occupancy. Its weekend net gross was Rs. 29 crores breaking the previous record of Rs. 22 crores set by Om Shanti Om. Singh Is Kinng went on to gross Rs. 43.77 crores in the first week in India alone. This broke the record for the highest opening week gross also previously held by Om Shanti Om, which grossed Rs. 41 crores in first week in 2007. Singh Is Kinng has grossed over Rs. 76 crores in India as of 7 September. It did record breaking business in Delhi, Rajasthan and East Punjab whereas the rest of India it did good business.

Worldwide, Singh Is Kinng had excellent opening. It shattered records in Pakistan. It has grossed over 2 crores in Pakistan in two weeks, which is a record for any Indian film. In North America, it grossed $1.1 million USD in the first weekend. In the UK, it grossed approximately $1 million USD.

It made $35 million worldwide as said on the DVD.