Pink

Plot

Minal, Falak, and Andrea are introduced to Rajveer, Raunak, and their mutual friend Vishwajyoti during a night out in New Delhi. After sharing drinks, the group heads to a resort, but the night ends abruptly when the men rush to a hospital to treat Rajveer for a severe, bleeding head wound. Concurrently, the three women return to their shared apartment deeply shaken, hinting at their involvement in the incident. Though they attempt to move on, they are quickly subjected to targeted harassment. Rajveer’s friend, Ankit, threatens their landlord and launches a sexually explicit smear campaign against them online, which ultimately costs Falak her job. When the women attempt to seek legal recourse, local police discourage them, protective of the men's political ties to Rajveer's influential uncle, Ranjit. Undeterred, Minal escalates the issue with the help of her boss and successfully files a formal complaint with a higher-ranking officer.

In retaliation, Rajveer's friends abduct Minal during her morning run. The incident is witnessed by Deepak, an enigmatic elderly neighbor who is unable to intervene in time. The men molest, blackmail, and traumatize Minal inside a moving car before dumping her back home. Days later, the situation worsens when Minal is arrested on attempted murder charges after Rajveer files a counter-complaint painting the three women as sex workers. Distraught by the systemic injustice, Falak and Andrea seek counsel from Deepak, discovering that he is actually a highly reputable, retired criminal defense attorney. Driven by his conscience, Deepak handles the bail procedures and steps out of retirement to represent Minal in court.

In the courtroom, prosecuting attorney Prashant Mehra orchestrates a character assassination against the women. He claims they willingly accompanied the men to the resort, initiated intimacy, and demanded money. Prashant argues that when Rajveer refused to pay for their services, an enraged Minal struck him with a bottle. To sway the court, he systematically attacks their morals, highlighting that Minal chooses to live independently away from her Delhi-based family, drinks alcohol, and stays out late. Conversely, Deepak presents the defense's timeline: the men deliberately isolated the women at the resort, and when Rajveer attempted to rape Minal, she struck him with a bottle in absolute self-defense.

Deepak shifts the trial's focus entirely to the fundamental issue of consent. During a tense cross-examination, Deepak deliberately provokes Rajveer, causing the young man to lose his temper and expose his true colors. Rajveer aggressively insults the women, shouting that they "got what they deserved" simply for choosing to drink and socialize with men. Capitalizing on this outburst, Deepak delivers a powerful closing argument criticizing society's regressive double standards, where independent women are automatically deemed characterless for their lifestyle choices while men are excused for predatory behavior. He firmly establishes that when a woman says "no," it is an absolute boundary that requires no further explanation or validation.

Production

In early March 2016 Amitabh Bachchan revealed that he was shooting a film in Delhi. It was rumoured that the film was titled "Eve". On 13 March Bachchan denied the rumours and announced through Twitter that the film is titled Pink.

Director-producer Shoojit Sircar informed that Amitabh Bachchan accepted the role and Taapsee Pannu was their first choice. Andrea Tariang was also selected to play the role of one of the girls in the film. Tushar Pandey, Raashul Tandon and Arjun Chakraborty are making their debut with this film.

Filming

The principal photography of the film began in New Delhi on International Women's Day, 2016. The looks of Amitabh Bachchan in the movie was created by Shoojit Sircar however the idea of wearing the mask was suggested by Amitabh Bachchan since Delhi is very polluted.

During the shoot, Amitabh Bachchan wandered the streets of New Delhi while wearing a costume in which the public could not recognise him. Amitabh Bachchan finished filming his scenes in April 2016.

Taapsee often broke down on the shooting sets as she felt her character was very strong and challenging. She suffered from viral infection during the court scenes and wanted to dub later, however Shoojit felt that her illness would add more authenticity to the scenes. Despite the hardships Taapsee enjoyed filming the scenes.

The original climax of Rajvir and his friends winning the case was modified so as not to hurt the sentiments of the audience.

A special screening of the film was held for Amitabh Bachchan's co stars and the leading ladies of Bollywood. However Amitabh Bachchan could not attend the screening due to health issues. Taapsee also arranged a special screening of the film for the Telugu film industry at Hyderabad.

Bishan Singh Bedi, father of Angad Bedi, arranged a special screening of the film in Delhi which was attended by cricketers like Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Marketing

Shoojit Sircar and Amitabh Bachchan questioned their fans on Twitter as to what they think the film title "Pink" is all about. Times of India had opened a contest in which 5 lucky winners got a chance to meet Amitabh Bachchan and other 10 winners got free movie tickets of the movie -Pink. The winners were announced on 15-September-2016.

The world television premier was held on 23 – October 2016 on Star Gold and to commemorate the same, Amitabh Bachchan's house Jalsa, Carter Road Promenade and SNDT Women's University were illuminated in pink colour.

The title of the film has no relationship as being the favourite colour of girls but rather conveys that women should have the freedom to speak and walk freely at night.

Release

The film was specially screened for the Rajasthan Police so as to train them to be sensitive and sensible about women's rights and dignity. The film was also specially screened at Rashtrapati Bhavan and invited for a screening at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 13 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10.

Meena Iye of The Times of India and Shubha Shetty Saha of Indiatimes gave the film 4.5 stars. Mayank Shekhar from Mid-Day gave the film 4/5 stars, saying, "The film, up until the closing credits, does not even visually describe the said incident. It grips you still with a gently piercing background score, moments of silence and dialogue, building up the tension, while the audience wonders what really could have happened one unfortunate night when three girls found themselves in a Surajkund resort with three guys."

Anna M.M. Vetticad of Firstpost called Pink a powerful film. Filmfare, India Today, Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times, The Statesman, and DNA have given 4/5 stars, highly appreciating the superlative performances, especially of Amitabh Bachchan. Critics like Anusha Iyengar and Mayank Shekhar called it movie of the year. Namrata Joshi of The Hindu also praised the film. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave the film 3.5 stars.

Rajeev Masand from News18 rated the movie as 4.5/5 mentioning that "I left the cinema, my mouth dry at the end of Pink. This isn't just an important film, but also excellently made. It's a giant leap for Hindi cinema, and easily the best film this year".

Box office

Pink grossed approximately ₹4.32 crore on first day in India. The first weekend collection was ₹21.51 crore.

At the end of 7 days the domestic box office collection was ₹35.91 crore. Pink grossed ₹50 crore in first 10 days in India.