Mohit Suri on wrapping up 2025 with Saiyaara: When I started, few people could believe a romance could get such numbers

Filmmaker Mohit Suri talks to us about how 2025 was a year for filmmakers, where multiple genres worked- from animation, devotional to action and romance.

Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara emerged as the highest grossing romance film in the history of Indian cinema, and catapulted newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda to overnight stardom.

Filmmaker Mohit Suri's Saiyaara was a massive hit at the box office in 2025.

As we wrap up 2025, he tells HT City he wasn’t anticipating these numbers, “You can never plan these things. No one goes out there saying ‘I want to make a blockbuster’, you just want to make a good film. For me, the numbers meant a great sense of validation. When I started off, very few people could believe a romantic film could do the kind of numbers it’s supposed to do. I wanted to make a film, in a world where everyone was making films about action, killings, which I too have done in the past. I wanted to be dramatically different, and if I wanted to stand out, I had to make a different film.”

The year itself has seen films of various genres work- from an actioner like Dhurandhar, to an animated film Mahavatar Narsimha. And Mohit applauds the same, “As a filmmaker, it was a brilliant year, because everyone who made a film, somewhere down the line, was standing alone when they started making it. It was not something everyone said was a sure shot hit! There were particular formulas people were tending to discuss, they were talking about sequels, and suddenly we saw all this. What was most healthy is that apart from a newcomer film doing well, we had mythological, devotional films doing well, a spiritual film like Kantara Chapter 1. You cannot pinpoint and say this year only one kind of film worked.”