2011 Hindi-language buddy road comedy-drama film
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (transl. You Only Live Once), popularly known by its initialism ZNMD, is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language road comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Koechlin. The film follows three friends from school, Arjun, Kabir, and Imran, who go on a three-week road trip in Spain for Kabir's bachelor party.
It was filmed across Spain, India and the United Kingdom on a budget of ₹45 crore (equivalent to ₹93 crore or US$11 million in 2023). The music and background score were composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy with lyrics written by Javed Akhtar. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was initially planned to release on 27 May 2011, but technical problems with post-production work led to the release being postponed to 24 June, and again to 15 July of that year. The film had a worldwide release on 1,800 screens and was a commercial success grossing ₹1.53 billion (US$18 million), becoming the 5th highest-grossing Hindi film of 2011, and received critical acclaim for its direction, story, screenplay, music, dark humor, cinematography and performances of the ensemble cast.
The film is widely regarded as one of Farhan Akhtar's finest acting performances, with particularly praise for his dialogue delivery and comic timing. At the 57th Filmfare Awards, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara received a leading 13 nominations, and won a leading seven awards, including Best Film, Best Film (Critics), Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Farhan Akhtar). Additionally, at the 59th National Film Awards, it won two awards – Best Choreography (Bosco-Caesar for "Señorita") and Best Audiography (Baylon Fonseca).
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.