‘Arth’ To ‘Befikre’: 12 Movies That Say Live-In Relationships Are Cool

A remake of director Maniratnam’s Tamil hit ‘OK Kanmani’, ‘OK Jaanu’ stars Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor which deals with a young couple who have different career aspirations who fall for each other but want to live-in to know whether they are compatible or not. The Hindi remake is directed by Shaad Ali and is produced by Dharma Productions.

The latest offing from YRF where Aditya Chopra makes a comeback to wielding the megaphone again. ‘Befikre’ is about Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor who meet in Paris and stay together only to find themselves falling in love with one another despite breaking all societal norms.

This Nikhil Advani flick too dealt with a young couple played by Imran Khan and Kangana Ranaut who like each other and rent out a house to live the way they like. The two though are very different to each other but eventually do fall in love after a few hiccups.

This Maneesh Sharma film was probably the boldest of them all which featured Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra and Vaani Kapoor in the lead roles. Set in Jaipur, Rajasthan, Shuddh Desi Romance showcases the attitude of today’s youngsters who aren’t interested in committing to each other and are fine with a live-in relationship.

Another recent flick which revolved around a live-in relationship featuring John Abraham, Prachi Desai and Chitrangada Singh in lead roles. A bit of resemblance to Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, in ‘I, Me Aur Main’ John lives-in with his girlfriend in an apartment but due to incompatibility they breakup as he switches to his neighbor to find true love. The rom-com was a good watch but gave a feeling of ‘been there seen it all’.

The sequel to the 1990 runaway hit, ‘Aashiqui 2’ saw the two leads Rahul (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Arohi (Shraddha Kapoor) living together before the story goes into melodrama mode. The sequel was directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Mukesh Bhatt.

‘Cocktail’ saw Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty living together in an apartment in London. Saif and Deepika is already a couple when Diana joins them after getting ditched by Randeep Hooda. Diana falls in love with Saif but feels that she will be cheating on her friend Deepika. The flick was well received at the box-office.

This Luv Ranjan directorial dealt with three live-in couples who are dealing with their own love-lives. Frustration creeps in when the males realize that enough space is not being given by their respective girls. This rom-com highlighted the pros and cons of a live-relationship with a bit of female bashing.

A simple story of a young man (played by Ranbir Kapoor) who is yet to find his bearings in life and gets thrown out by his businessman father. He lands up staying with a female friend (played by Konkona Sen Sharma) of his only to later realize that he wants to pursue his career in photography. Ayan Mukherji made his directorial debut with this Karan Johar production.

Though Ranbir Kapoorromanced Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu and Manisha Lamba in this romanticdrama but has a live-in relationship with Bipasha. His stay with Bipasha in anapartment had a few steamy scenes but somehow the movie failed to grab muchattention as it looked like another romantic flick from the YRF stable.

‘Salaam Namaste’ featured Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta who meet in Australia and fall in love. Due to budget constraints both shift in together and have a live-in relationship. Preity gets pregnant but Saif is not interested in having the child. After a few twists and turn all ends well between the two.

Probably the first ever film to show the leads having a live-in relationship on screen. Inspired from director Mahesh Bhatt’s real life story, ‘Arth’ was about Kulbhushan Kharbanda who has a live-in relationship with Smita Patil despite being married to Shabana Azmi. The flick which set a trend of sorts was considered too bold those days.