‘Female characters with dignity’: Mudassar Aziz on whether Pati Patni Aur Woh Do promotes adultery

In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Aziz addresses the allegations that the film promotes adultery, reflects on the art of reimagining remakes, the box office failures of his previous works, and discusses his commitment to writing women characters with agency. 

Excerpts edited for clarity and brevity 

What initially attracted you to the story and convinced you to make a sequel?

This is a very beloved franchise. People love it. It’s something BR Chopra saab started back in 1978. And when I say “people,” I mean the aam junta, the masses. This time, the thought was: what if you had to make Pati Patni Aur Woh about a husband who is so straitjacketed that he doesn’t even have a roving eye? How would you create comedy then? That’s when the character of Prajapati Pandey, played by Ayushman, came into being.

When the trailer dropped, social media buzzed with critiques noting that even in 2026, we’re making films that promotes adultery. 

I can answer on two levels: personal and professional. Personally, I don’t have a presence on social media, I don’t have Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, so it’s easy to stay away. Professionally, as a filmmaker, I started my career as a writer. And a writer must allow discourse of any kind, and that’s always welcome. If people react to a trailer or film in a certain way on social media, I’m happy. Because eventually, people watch the film, and then they realise whether it’s about adultery or not. Maybe they were too quick to react, and the problem solves itself. So, why worry?

If I were genuinely trying to promote adultery, I’d be concerned. But I’m not. At the end of the day, the film releases, people watch it, and they’ll see: “Oh, this is not about adultery, and it’s certainly not promoting it.” As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.

Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan in Pati Patni Aur Woh Do.

In your previous films, like Happy Bhaag Jayegi and Khel Khel Mein, you handled gender dynamics rather thoughtfully. How do you approach getting the politics of gender right at a time when women characters are often just footnotes in commercial comedies?

It’s not entirely in my hands whether films hit or flop, that’s up to the audience. But what I can do is write my female characters with dignity. Even, if you see, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Ananya Panday and Bhumi Pednekar’s characters are dignified. They team up to challenge the male lead, and in the climax, you realise they were playing him all along. Even in Khel Khel Mein, characters of Taapsee Pannu and Vaani Kapoor make their own decisions. In an Akshay Kumar-like vehicle, they find space to express themselves. Similarly, in Pati Patni Aur Woh Doh, the three women are really the film.

And I think, again, a hint should be taken from the fact that everyone knows how difficult it is to cast three contemporary leading ladies in one film. It is only if the script provides them with that kind of impetus while they are reading and hearing it that they will say, “My arc is completely in place, I’m gonna do this.” So you will find that the three of them, each one of them, is in a completely different kind of character, very, very assured. And they are more capable, more able, and have more agency than Prajapati Pandey does in this film.

Sara Ali Khan recently said she’d love to play Rakul Preet Singh’s character in another universe.

(Smiles) I’ll tell you anecdotally, there were so many times when Sara told me, “I really wish I would have done Rakul’s part?” And at one point in time, Rakul had once told me, “I really wish I had got Wamiqa’s part.” So, funnily enough, I cracked this joke on set where I said, “I should have just cast one actress and made her play a triple role or something.” So, point being that it’s nice. I feel complimented as a writer when my actors, after selecting the parts that they selected, feel like somebody else’s part has also come out really good. I’m telling you from the deepest, honest place in my heart that it has turned out to become such a beautiful comedy. And my attempt with this one is to take us back into a world of Welcome and No Entry.

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Your comedies are essentially comedies of errors, all about chaos.

 I think it comes from the fact that there are some kinds of films as a child that I really enjoyed. And those films were Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi, Pati Patni Aur Woh, Angoor. And then came Kader Khan, Govinda, and Shakti Kapoor while I was growing up. And they provided a lot of chaos as well. Like one of my all-time favourite films happens to be Chaalbaaz. At one point I almost came to a point where a Chaalbaaz remake was happening and it was coming my way, and then for some reason it didn’t materialise. But it happens to be one of my all-time favourites.

In an alternate universe, I keep seeing Chaalbaaz and I keep thinking, looking at it, and I feel like, wow, this is such a feminist film. Because there’s a woman in charge. This comedy is commercial of course, but there are two stars willing to play second fiddle to the female star. And these are not small stars, it’s Sunny Deol and Rajinikanth. So yeah, I think growing up on this kind of cinema has largely been responsible. You’re right though, I do enjoy chaos.

Mudassar Aziz opened up about the debacle of his films like Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi and Mere Husband Ki Biwi.

You have done multiple remakes in your career. So what’s your process of getting the contemporary setting right while retaining the charm of the original?

When you’re working on something which is an adaptation, the first thing you need to look towards is what the plot is saying. After you look at what the plot of one particular film is saying, then you’ve got to detach yourself from the plot and look for that plot around you in your society, and leave the film. Just leave it. This is my process. So I’ll give you an example of, say, Perfect Strangers, the Italian film (which was remade as Khel Khel Mein). I saw it, and I understood what the director wanted to say by way of the plot. And then I detached from it. I started to search for his plot in our world. So then I could go back to it with my kind of characters, which have nothing to do with his characters. My kind of setting, which has nothing to do with his setting. And my kind of climax, which has nothing to do with his climax.

When films like Mere Husband Ki Biwi, or Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi, or even Khel Khel Mein don’t do the expected numbers, how do you look at it?

It’s not easy because this is a profession that’s more subject to public judgment than any profession. If an accountant makes a balance sheet mistake in his office, the boss yells at him and five people come to know. If a film doesn’t do well, the whole nation is talking about a film that you just made. So it’s not easy. Yet, you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that when I open my laptop again, some magic will happen. And then this time it will work. I think that’s the magic of this profession, honestly.

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Your first film, Dulha Mil Gaya, didn’t work. Did that prepare you for how tough this profession can be?

 Absolutely. Look, I’m an outsider, and I came from an academic family. I’m an engineer by qualification. I wanted to do films since I was 12, and my parents were dead against it. And I think the debacle of the first film, the fact that it took four years to make, I think it was the Almighty’s way of preparing me for it’s going to be a ride which will be bumpy and you’d have to stick to your guns. You’d have to believe, you’d have to keep fighting. I think you have to believe in the grace of the Almighty, that after a point, you know, hard work will shine through beyond all the riffraff and the chattering and all of that.

Dulha Mil Gaya had an extended cameo with Shah Rukh Khan. Would you want to work with him again someday?

 I genuinely believe he’s got such a fantastic sense of comic timing. He’s very good at comedy. There were those moments where he was supposed to pull Fardeen Khan’s leg in the second half of Dulha Mil Gaya, and he was just wonderful in those parts. And I, well, I for one most definitely want to collaborate with him. I don’t know what the genre is, but I most definitely want to. Our paths have only not crossed since then. But Inn Sha Allah, never say never. Life is long and only God knows best.