Prem Keetanu’s Gaurav Verma Reveals the Film’s Seven-Song Album is a Conscious Choice

Gaurav Verma is coming up with an upcoming buddy-comedy, Prem Keetanu, marking his first production under his own banner, Avanika Films. Verma presents a young, small-town story of boys who arrive in a big city to chase education and a free-spirited life. “It’s a story of boys who have come from a small town to a big town for education, trying to find something in their lives. Most of us have hustled through that and lived that life, so you find it nostalgic and relatable. And secondly, the world is the same. The world is hustling even at today’s rate,” he says.

The filmmaker, who has spent years in a studio ecosystem, shares that even though the banner may have changed, the primary responsibility of a producer does not. “The difference has been to have a banner of your own. Whether you are a dependent producer or you’re independent, the responsibility and accountability pretty much stays the same. When you’re independent, you go through your round of checks, how to probably go about the film and how do you want to position the film. It’s not the brand which will position the film, it is the film that will position itself.”

The film’s music expands its world. At a time when films are choosing singles or recreated tracks, Prem Keetanu features a magnum seven-song album. “When we grew up, music used to play a lot of part in terms of how we used to dream about life and how we used to visualise everything. So, we worked on that simultaneously when the script was being developed. Our first exposure to any film was music. Our feelings came from music, the affinity towards film came from music, to actors came from music. If I go back to the 90s when I was growing up, even if it was a film that has not done well, I knew the actor because I was listening to that track every day.”

When it comes to the cast, the film unites vibrant faces. “We realised that if we have a cast which is not so familiar, they are yet to make their mark. And if you’re working with them, music is something which will help us build that equity with the audience. That was a conscious call.”

The film’s songs also adds to its storytelling, a facet that Hindi cinema walked away from. “We wanted lyrics to have sometimes more depth than the dialogue themselves. And we wanted to use the lyrics to express more, to establish the mood and the tempo of the scene correctly and with more depth.”

Saiyaara is proof that the audience still respond to the grammar of music. “Music stays beyond the film and it has a deeper interaction with people more than the film. We are not pushing our cast, we are pushing the film. Our world is Prem Keetanu’s. Slowly and gradually, how will the world of Prem Keetanu’s exposure come? It can’t come from actors, it will come from the content.”

Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki and produced by Gaurav Verma under Avanika Films, the movie is co-presented with Phars Films in association with Bhavana Studios and produced by Gaurav Verma. Prem Keetanu stars Veer Pahariya, Aafiya Sayed, Aparshakti Khurana, Rakesh Bedi and Nikhil Vijay. The film revolves around a group of youngsters negotiating friendship, first love, one-sided love and the inevitable heartbreaks that come with growing up.

Prem Keetanu is set for a worldwide theatrical release on October 2, 2026.