Aamir Khan's PK opened to record-breaking numbers on December 18, 2014, shattering several box office records in its opening weekend and quickly establishing itself as one of the most discussed—and debated—Bollywood films in years.

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. 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 film broke Dhoom 3's opening day record—itself a Khan film—and crossed the 100-crore mark faster than any Bollywood release before it. The commercial success was matched by critical acclaim: reviewers praised the script's wit, Khan's physical transformation into the wide-eyed alien, and the film's willingness to take on subjects that Indian cinema typically avoids.

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, wrapped inside a love story between an alien and a television journalist played by Anushka Sharma.

Whether audiences found it blasphemous or brilliant, they went in record numbers. In Bollywood, that is the ultimate verdict.