PK: Aamir Khan's alien satire became Bollywood's biggest hit

The short version: Aamir Khan's PK released on December 19, 2014, and became one of the most discussed — and debated — Bollywood films in years: a satire on organized religion that went on to become the highest-grossing Indian film of all time.

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, the film follows an alien (played by Khan) who lands on Earth and struggles to understand human religious practices, which he finds baffling in their variety, contradiction, and susceptibility to exploitation by self-appointed godmen. Anushka Sharma plays the television journalist who befriends him. The satirical premise gave Khan and Hirani license to ask uncomfortable questions about organized religion in India with a lightness of touch that made the medicine easier to swallow.

The numbers were extraordinary even if the opening-day record stayed with Khan's own Dhoom 3: PK collected Rs. 95.41 crore over its first weekend — the second-highest opening weekend of Aamir Khan's career — and kept growing. It crossed Rs. 300 crore domestically and ended its run as the highest-grossing Indian film ever at the time, a record Dhoom 3 had held.

Not everyone was pleased. Several Hindu religious groups protested the film's depiction of Hindu deities and accused it of selectively targeting Hinduism while sparing Islam; theaters in some cities faced picketing. The controversy, predictably, drove more people to watch the film and form their own opinions.

Hirani, who previously gave India the wildly successful 3 Idiots (also with Khan), has an unusual gift for packaging social criticism inside mainstream entertainment. PK continues that tradition — a comedy about faith, doubt, and the human need to believe.

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Box office figures per Bollywood Hungama's 2014 box office reports.