- After the success of 3 Idiots (2009), Hirani and Joshi began scripting their next project; finding similarities with the plot of Inception (2010), they scrapped the film. It was later rewritten with a different angle and tone. During production, the film was initially titled Talli and later Ek Tha Talli before being changed to PK as the latter title was found to be too similar to Ek Tha Tiger (2012).
- According to Hirani, PK is a “satire on Hindu gods and their godmen”. The co-director Khan began looking for shooting locations in July 2012. Second unit filming was set to begin in late 2012, which was stalled after the rumoured departure of three department heads for the film and bad weather stalling initial shoots. Hirani denied rumours that the film would be delayed, stating that principal filming had always been intended to begin in mid-January 2013 in Delhi and Rajasthan to “capture the winter of Delhi”.
- Shooting officially began on 1 February 2013, with the filming scheduled to occur over a 45-day period. A one-week schedule of shooting of PK was in June 2013 in Bruges, Belgium. A 26-day schedule of shooting of PK started in Delhi from 27 September 2013.
- PK was the first Bollywood film to be shot in Belgium.
- In 2011, Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma signed on for the film. Khan’s nephew Imran Khan and Ranbir Kapoor were considered for a role which eventually went to Sushant Singh Rajput before the release of his debut movie Kai Po Che (2013).
- In PK, Amir Khan played nine avatars and, during the course of the film, the he had to chew over 10,000 betelnut preparations called paan. He would at times eat about 100 paans in a day. They had a paanwala [a paan maker] on the sets.
- The film was marketed by a Mumbai Based company named Spice PR owned by Prabhat Choudhary.
- The makers released a teaser trailer on 23 October 2014. It achieved 3.4 million views on YouTube within five days, subsequently receiving 12 million views. It was regarded as the most viewed movie trailers on YouTube.
- PK was produced on a budget of ₹1.22 billion.
PK was earlier scheduled to release on 6 June 2014. The director (who is also editor of the film), Rajkumar Hirani, wanted to spend more time editing. Besides, some portions with Sanjay Dutt were yet to be shot. Also, the second season of Satyamev Jayate was to kick off from March. So Aamir Khan was not sure if he would be able to promote PK in June. Hence the makers settled for a December release. - PK was released on 19 December 2014, as the 200th Bollywood release in 2014. The release was later expanded to 6000 screens worldwide, which included 5200 screens in India[65] and 844 screens overseas.
- PK was initially released in 4844 screens worldwide. PK has been made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. PK is the widest Indian movie released in the U.K. (198 screens), Pakistan (over 70 screens), Australia (35 screens) and outside of India (844 screens in over 40 overseas markets). PK was released theatrically in China on 22 May 2015 across 4,600 screens. It had a dubbed Mandarin Chinese version, with Wang Baoqiang voicing Khan’s role. The film was released in South Korea and Hong Kong on 3 September 2015, and in Japan on 29 October 2016.
- PK was the first Indian film to gross more than ₹7 billion and US$100 million worldwide. At the time of its release, it emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time. The film’s final worldwide gross was ₹769.89 crore (US$118.92 million). It currently stands as the 8th highest grossing Indian film of all time. and 9th highest-grossing film in India.
- Junaid Khan, son of Aamir Khan worked as an assistant director in this film.
- Indiagames, a part of Disney India’s Interactive business, announced the launch of the official mobile game ‘PK’ based on the film. The game was developed for both feature phones and smartphones. It was launched on Google Play, iOS App Store and Windows platform.
- Director Hirani has confirmed that a sequel will be made starring Khan and Ranbir Kapoor. He said, “We will make the sequel. We had shown Ranbir [Kapoor’s character landing on the planet] towards the end of the film, so there is a story to tell. But Abhijat (Joshi, writer) has not written it yet. The day he writes it, we will make it.”
PK Movie Tracklist:
The film’s soundtrack is composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ajay−Atul and Ankit Tiwari with lyrics written by Swanand Kirkire, Amitabh Varma and Manoj Muntashir.
- Tharki Chokro – Swaroop Khan
- Love Is a Waste of Time – Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
- Nanga Punga Dost – Shreya Ghoshal
- Chaar Kadam – Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal
- Bhagwan Hai Kahan Re Tu – Sonu Nigam
- Dil Darbadar – Ankit Tiwari
- PK Dance Theme – Instrumental
