General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke (ये रास्ते हैं प्यार के)

Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke (ये रास्ते हैं प्यार के) is a 2001 Hindi-language romantic drama directed by Deepak S. Shivdasani, starring Ajay Devgn in a double role as the con man Vicky and his look-alike Rohit Verma, with Madhuri Dixit as Neha and Preity Zinta as Sakshi.¹^•² It was produced by Shivdasani and Pradeep Sadarangani for Tips Industries and released on 10 August 2001.³ The film shares its title with a 1963 Hindi film starring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu, and reviewers at the time warned readers not to confuse the two.⁴

Key fact	Detail
Release	10 August 2001 (India), Hindi language, produced by Tips Industries³
Director and producers	Deepak S. Shivdasani; producers Deepak Shivdasani and Pradeep Sadarangani³
Lead cast	Ajay Devgn (Vicky/Rohit Verma), Madhuri Dixit (Neha), Preity Zinta (Sakshi), with Sunny Deol in a special appearance²^•⁵
Music	Eight tracks; six composed by Sanjeev-Darshan with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, two by Adnan Sami with lyrics by Mehboob⁶^•⁴
Box office	Box Office India verdict: Flop; budget ₹8,50,00,000, total nett gross ₹77,550,000⁷
IMDb rating	4.1/10 from 915 votes¹
UK gross	$227,782, opening at $98,739 in 21 theaters⁸

Spoilers

Plot

The story turns on a case of mistaken identity. Vicky (Ajay Devgn) and Sakshi (Preity Zinta) are con artists and car thieves who run afoul of the gangster Bhanwarlal (Deep Dhillon) when they accidentally kill his brother. Bhanwarlal and his other brother swear revenge and, mistaking him for Vicky, kill Rohit Verma, Vicky's look-alike.⁹ Sakshi believes her beloved is dead and is devastated, while Vicky, still alive, reaches Manali where everyone takes him for Rohit. On discovering Rohit's wealth, he decides to play along and takes Rohit's place, deceiving Rohit's father Pratap Verma (Vikram Gokhale) and Rohit's wife Neha (Madhuri Dixit), who little knows that Pratap already knows his son is dead yet permits the impersonation to continue.⁹

A contemporary Times of India review gives a different account of the setup: Neha is married to Rohit, who is murdered by Bhanwarlal on the first night of the marriage; Neha loses her memory and believes her husband is alive, and Rohit's father finds the look-alike Vicky and offers him money to become Rohit.¹⁰ In this version, the timely arrival of Sagar (Sunny Deol in a special appearance), a secret admirer of Neha, resolves the deception.¹⁰ Rediff's preview describes Neha as a young woman suffering from selective amnesia who dreams of someone (Sunny Deol) and is married to someone else (Ajay).⁵

Cast and crew

Ajay Devgn carries the double role of Vicky and Rohit Verma. Madhuri Dixit plays Neha Verma and Preity Zinta plays Sakshi; the supporting cast includes Vikram Gokhale as Pratap Verma, Deep Dhillon as Bhanwarlal, Smita Jaykar as Aarti Sharma, Kiran Kumar as Ranjan Sharma, Rajeev Verma as Dr. Ashok, Lalit Tiwari as Ashok Sharma, and Madan Jain as Avinash.² Sunny Deol appears in a special appearance.⁵

Behind the camera, Robin Bhatt and Deepak S. Shivdasani wrote the screenplay, with dialogue by Kader Khan, Robin Bhatt, and Shankar Iyer; Rajan Kinagi was the cinematographer and Shirish Kunder the editor.³^•¹¹ Choreographers included Ganesh Acharya, Saroj Khan, and Raju Khan.¹¹ Rakhi Sawant makes a special appearance in the song "Bam Bhole".¹² According to IMDb trivia, Preity Zinta's role was first offered to Karisma Kapoor.¹³

Music

The soundtrack album, released by Tips Music, contains eight tracks with a total length of 47 minutes 11 seconds.⁶^•¹⁴ Sanjeev-Darshan composed six songs to lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and guest composer Adnan Sami contributed two, including "Aaja Aaja" sung by Asha Bhosle, with lyrics by Mehboob.⁴^•⁶ Singers on the album include Asha Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Anuradha Paudwal, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Vinod Rathod, Manohar Shetty, Jaspinder Narula, and Shaan.⁶ Rediff's music review called the album mediocre, singling out "Aaja Aaja" as its saving grace.¹⁵ The trade paper Film Information judged Sanjeev Darshan's music fair, naming the title song, "Jo pyar karta hai", "Balle balle", and "Aaja aaja" as quite good.¹⁶

Reception and box office

The film opened on 10 August 2001 on 275 screens in India, with a first day of ₹8,300,000 and a first weekend of ₹2,44,00,000, according to Box Office India, which lists a total nett gross of ₹77,550,000 against a budget of ₹85,000,000 and a verdict of Flop.⁷ Sacnilk, compiling from other sources, reports an India net of ₹76.2 million (₹7.62 crore), an India gross of ₹121 million (₹12.10 crore), overseas earnings of ₹24.5 million (₹2.45 crore), a worldwide total of ₹145.5 million (₹14.55 crore), and a budget of ₹80 million (₹8.00 crore), with a verdict of Below Average.¹⁷ The two trackers differ on both budget and worldwide total, and neither claims producer-verified figures.⁷^•¹⁷ In the United Kingdom, the film grossed $227,782, opening at $98,739 in 21 theaters and rising to $661,146 in its second weekend.⁸

Critical reception was largely negative. The Times of India gave two stars, writing that despite an impressive star cast the film fails to make an impact, while crediting Ajay Devgn with an impressive performance in the double role and calling Madhuri Dixit the saving grace of the film.¹⁰ Film Information called it a weak film with bleak chances in most circuits, though it predicted the film would do well in Bihar, and found Sunny Deol hopelessly wasted in his special appearance.¹⁶ Rediff's review faulted the screenplay by Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurana for leaps of logic and noted that most of the film was shot in Delhi, with the first song shot in Malaysia.⁴ Bollywood Hungama was more favorable, rating the film two out of five and calling Madhuri Dixit's performance incredible and flawless, with an engrossing second half.¹⁸ The film holds a 4.1/10 rating on IMDb from 915 votes.¹

The 1963 film of the same name

The title was first used in 1963 for a Hindi film starring Sunil Dutt and Leela Naidu, directed by R.K. Nayyar.¹⁹ According to the filmmaker B.S. Thapa, interviewed by the researcher Shishir Krishna Sharma, the 1963 film was a courtroom drama based on Mumbai's infamous Nanavati case, and Sunil Dutt gave Thapa responsibility for writing all the court scenes.²⁰ A Hindi-language column describes the 1963 film as based on a true incident, centered on a woman's extramarital relationship and modeled on the real life of naval officer K.M. Nanavati.²¹ The Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema lists Yeh Raaste Hain Pyar Ke among Sunil Dutt's 1963 releases.²² Rediff's 2001 review explicitly cautioned readers not to confuse the new film with the 1963 film of the same name, adding that the 2001 film was supposed to be a remake of Khilona.⁴

Availability

As of recent checks, the film is not available to stream, rent, or buy online in the United States; JustWatch records that it was last available on Amazon Prime Video until May 2021, with earlier Prime Video windows from June 2018 to September 2018 and March 2019 to July 2019, and notes that the DVD can be bought from Amazon.² Rotten Tomatoes lists a streaming release date of May 19, 2020.²³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026