One day in Goa Veer befriends a passer-by Ishita by helping her injuring his car in the process. For penance, his elder brother Raj makes him fix it during which Veer sleeps and awakes to find that the car’s sound system has been stolen.

The men of a local gang leader, King, try to sell drugs at a crab shack. Veer beats them up after they threaten Ishita. They then come back later to exact revenge on Veer, but Raj breaks up the fight. Raj visits him in hospital and learns King's hideout. He goes there, incapacitates the gang members, and burns their drug stash. Raj tells King’s men his original name, Kaali. King stops by Raj’s shop the next day to present a deal where Raj will fix all of King’s cars in exchange for protection.

Bulgaria 1995. Raj accidentally runs over Meena while a car chase. When he gets out to help her, the rival gang catches up with him, and he has to leave. Next day, he reveals that he is the son of Randhir Bakshi. The next day, after a car crash, Raj is confronted by Meera, who actually is the daughter of rival gang’s leader, Malik. She reveals that she betrayed him on her father's advice though sparing his life. Later, Raj saves Meera from dying, promising to kill if he sees her again. She forgives him and declares her love. They make plans to tell their parents about their relationship.

The film flashes back to Goa, where Veer discovers that Siddhu poisoned his coffee and stole the sound system. Veer is upset, but Siddhu explains it is for his girlfriend, Jenny. They agree to help each other secure girlfriends. As a consequence, Veer reveals his feelings to Ishita. Upon finding out about their relationship, Raj wants to meet Ishita’s family. When Raj visits there, he discovers that Meera is Ishita’s older sister.

After talks, Malik agrees to meet Randhir, but, secretly, he plans to kill him. The meeting breaks into a shootout, during which Malik and Randhir shoot each other. Meera finds Raj with the gun, for which she shoots him; however, he survives the gunshot. Both Meera and Raj decide to move far away from Bulgaria and start a new life.

Now in Goa, Veer and Ishita come up with several plots to bring Meera and Raj together. Mani steals King’s car and brings it to the shop, where Veer discovers drugs and burns them. King comes to Meera’s house one night, but Raj, as Kaali, shows up and stops them from causing her any harm. King asks Meera about Kaali which she refuses sparing Raj's life. Meera issues an ultimatum that in order to marry Ishita, Veer must move in with Meera. Meera also tells him that Raj is adopted and not his blood brother. Raghav tells Meera that Raj did not kill Malik, but that Randhir had shot Malik in return to his. Upon learning this, Meera apologises and allows Veer that he can take Ishita his home.

At Siddhu and Jenny's wedding, King shows up to his stolen car. King starts to cause a disturbance, but Raj beats him up. King then tries to shoot Raj, but accidentally shoots Meera who tries to save Raj, however Meera survives and King gets beaten to death. Raj and Meera reunite in hospital.

• Kajol as Meera Dev Malik
• Shah Rukh Khan as Raj Randhir Bakshi/Kaali
• Varun Dhawan as Veer Randhir Bakshi
• Kriti Sanon as Ishita Dev Malik
• Boman Irani as King
• Johnny Lever as Mani Bhai
• Sanjay Mishra as Oscar Bhai
• Varun Sharma as Sidhu
• Chetna Pande as Jenny, Sidhu's girlfriend (Oscar Bhai's sister)
• Mukesh Tiwari as Shakti, Sidhu's brother
• Pankaj Tripathi as Anwar
• Vinod Khanna as Randhir Bakshi
• Kabir Bedi as Dev Malik
• Nawab Shah as Raghav, Malik's right-hand

Development

In January 2015, Rohit Shetty announced a project with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead which would be their second collaboration after the 2013 film Chennai Express. Shetty stated that he would start filming in March 2015. Shetty paired actress Kajol with Khan, making it the seventh time they were cast opposite each other. He also signed actor Varun Dhawan who was reportedly playing Khan's brother while actress Kriti Sanon was signed opposite him.

Filming

Principal photography began on 20 March 2015 with Dhawan in Goa. Khan and Kajol first joined the crew for filming in Bulgaria from June 2015. Later that month, the first song from the film was shot on Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, in Bulgaria. The schedule there was wrapped up by late July. In August 2015, a romantic song featuring the lead pair was shot in Iceland. The entire team then left for Hyderabad in early September to shoot what was touted to be the final schedule of filming. However, the work in Hyderabad was completed by late October, and filming officially came to an end with a brief schedule in Goa, the same location where it was started. In December, after the promotions had commenced, another song was shot in haste. It featured all four lead actors and had to be played simultaneously with the end-credits.

Dilwale was released in the United Arab Emirates a day before its worldwide release on 18 December 2015. The film was released in around 3100 screens in India.

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sony Pictures Networks as part of a deal worth ?220 crore (US$33 million), along with the next two or three Red Chillies Entertainment productions. The valuation of Dilwale alone was approximately ?60 crore (US$8.9 million).

On 14 December 2015, in the United Kingdom, the film received a 12A classification from the British Board of Film Classification for "moderate violence". The film's UK distributor chose to remove thirteen seconds in order to obtain this rating (the excised material being scenes involving stronger violence than possible for a 12A rating). An uncut 15-rated version is available.

Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave the film 4/5 stars, saying, "On the whole, Dilwale is akin to a mouthwatering meal that satiates the craving of those who relish masalathons, besides being an absolute treat for SRK-Kajol fans. An unadulterated crowd-pleaser, Dilwale delivers what you expect from a Rohit Shetty film: King-sized entertainment. Go for it!". Komal Nahta in his review of the film said, "Dilwale is a masala entertainer from the start till the end." Rachit Gupta from Filmfare gave it 4/5 stars and added, "Dilwale is the quintessential popcorn flick. It’s colorful, bright and entertaining. It smartly keeps its play on the SRK-Kajol chemistry (watch out for the brilliant ending). It has fantastic music. Decent laughs too. Definitely worth a dekho." Sarita A Tanwar of DNA gave the film 3/5 stars, saying "Dilwale is flawed, but it's right for those who believe that love does conquer it all, actually."

Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today also rated the film 3/5 and concluded, "Dilwale is immensely enjoyable despite an oh-my-god-this-is-so-predictable story. Keep your brains out of the picture, and you have an out-and-out entertainer which fits perfectly in the mould of a guilty pleasure. Go indulge!" Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid Day gave the film 3 stars as well and said, "Watch this for the chemistry between SRK and Kajol which refuses to simmer down even after all these years." Meena Iyer from The Times of India gave the film 3/5 stars, criticizing the plot, and stated, "Dilwale leans heavily on Shah Rukh's mega-stardom, Varun's effervescence, breathtaking locales (Iceland and Bulgaria), orchestrated car chases and over-the-top situations, which have you chuckling."

NDTV felt that the film's plot "went in circles" and that while Kajol was great, the film overall failed to appeal. The Economic Times gave the film 2.5/5 stars and felt that it "lacked soul and freshness" and stated that it would only appeal to fans of Khan and Kajol. Rajeev Masand of IBN Live gave the film 2 out of 5 and said, "The real problem with Dilwale is the sheer artificiality of the enterprise. From the rainbow-hued sets and the touched-up landscapes in the Gerua song, to many moments of comedic and emotional payoff, so much of it just feels fake." Namrata Joshi of The Hindu commented, "With Dilwale, Rohit Shetty goes hopelessly wrong despite much that he had at his disposal, including a power-packed cast and producer". Joshi also felt that the attempt to repackage Khan and Kajol had backfired. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a 1.5/5 rating and called the plot "highly predictable".

Dilwale made around ?150 crore (US$22 million) worldwide in its opening weekend, the third highest of the year. The film went on to gross ?408.15 crore (US$61 million) worldwide.

India

The film, releasing alongside Bajirao Mastani, opened number one at the box office, and collected ?21 crore (US$3.1 million) nett in India on its opening day, the third highest of the year after Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The film showed little drop on its second day, and earned nearly ?20 crore (US$3.0 million) nett. On its first Sunday, Dilwale took in approximately ?23 crore (US$3.4 million) nett, bringing the three-day nett to an estimated ?64 crore (US$9.5 million). Dilwale had a first week of ?97 crore (US$14 million) nett in the domestic market.^[45]

The film earned around ?21 crore (US$3.1 million) nett in its second weekend.^[46] It grossed little over ?31 crore (US$4.6 million) nett in week two, taking its business to ?127 crore (US