When Hollywood stuntman Viraj Shergill [Akshay Kumar] and medical student Simrita Rai [Kareeena Kapoor] meet at his brothers wedding they instantly hate each other. However, they both want to break up the marriage. When Simrita performs surgery on Viraj she accidentally loses her musical watch and must find a way to get her jewelry back without him finding out. She pretends to be interested in him and drugs him so she can retrieve her watch. Viraj also begins pretending that he is interested in Simrita, but he secretly plans to break up with her.

Production

In November 2007, producer Sajid Nadiadwala signed on actor Akshay Kumar to play the lead role in his film. Later that month Kareena Kapoor was signed on to play the female lead. It is the seventh time Kumar and Kapoor are paired together on-screen. Kumar plays a Hollywood stuntman in the film and Kapoor plays a high-society girl. According to Nadiadwala, "It will be an international love story on a lavish scale." The project was originally expected to commence filming in January 2008 in Los Angeles, California with nine actors from Hollywood but due to extensive pre-production work on the film, it was later shifted to May 2008. Reports indicated that actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger was signed on to do a cameo and that the film would feature a performance from singer and actress Beyoncé Knowles. Prashant Shah, line producer of Kambakkht Ishq in L.A. commented, "...We are in talks with Beyoncé and we have also received a letter from Arnolds office...Things will be confirmed shortly and we will be making a formal announcement when that happens." It was later reported that both of the stars would not be appearing in the film. In March 2008, Nadiadwala announced that "this would be the first Indian film to be shot within Universal Studios." However, when a fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios on 1 June 2008, the shooting of the film was expected to be delayed but the producer indicated, "...so far the area where we are supposed to shoot remains unaffected. So for now we are proceeding on schedule." Later that month, the cast finally began filming for the project in Los Angeles, California, where pivotal scenes were shot at the Kodak Theatre and Universal Studios. In August 2008, reports had indicated that the film was 50-60% complete and the cast would continue filming for the project in Venice, Italy. After completing their overseas schedule, the production team later headed to shoot in Mumbai, India. During December 2008, reports surfaced indicating that Kumar and Kapoor would appear alongside Carmen Electra in a promotional music video for the film. In February 2009, Nadiadwala announced that Electra wouldnt be appearing in the music video and was replaced by the music group RDB. According to Nadiadwala, "It is not a music video but a song that we will use as an integral part of the film. It will occur close to the films interval. It will also be the first promotional song." The first trailer of the film was shown alongside the release of Jehangir Surtis film Aa Dekhen Zara [2009].

Soundtrack

Song	Singer[s]	Duration	Notes
Om Mangalam	RDB [Rhythm Dhol Bass] & Nindy Kaur	4:22	Picturised on Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, RDB & Nindy Kaur
Lakh Lakh	Neeraj Shridhar	5:15	Picturised on Akshay Kumar & Kareena Kapoor
Bebo	Alisha Chinai	4:19	Picturised on Kareena Kapoor & Akshay Kumar
Kambakkht Ishq	KK & Sunidhi Chauhan	4:51	Picturised on Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani & Amrita Arora
Kyun	Shaan & Shreya Ghoshal	5:29
Om Mangalam - Reprise	RDB [Rhythm Dhol Bass] & Nindy Kaur	4:35	End credits
Lakh Lakh [Electro Dhol House Remix]	Eric Pillai	4:02
Bebo [Club Mix]	Kilogram K & G	3:38
Kambakkht Ishq [Remix]	Kilogram K & G	4:00
Kyun [Female] - Reprise	Shreya Ghoshal	4:30	Picturised on Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar & Denise Richards
Welcome To Hollywood	Karsh Kale & Anushka Manchanda	2:11	Composed by guest composer Salim-Sulaiman

Box office

= Prior to the films worldwide release of 3 July 2009, advance bookings for Kambakkht Ishq officially commenced from June 28 onwards to positive response from the public. The film grossed over Rs 1 crore from its 125 advanced paid previews shown on Thursday [2 July 2009] night. On 3 July 2009, Kambakkht Ishq opened to a bumper response of 90-100% all over India. Making a first day total of Rs 8.50 crore, the film emerged as the second biggest opening day gross of all time for a Bollywood film. For its opening weekend in India, Kambakkht Ishq accumulated a total of Rs 24.50 crore from 1,400 screens. The following Monday, it grossed another Rs 4 crore, and the following Tuesday it grossed Rs 3 crore. At the end of its first week, Kambakkht Ishq collected a total of Rs 35.95 crore. During its second week at the box office, the film showed a 70% drop in its collections; the movie was above average overall at the box office. Besides being released domestically in India, Eros International also released the film in over 600 screens overseas in a combination of prints and digital format. For its opening weekend in the United Kingdom, the film debuted at number 8 and grossed £ 299,533 on 56 screens, for an average of £ 5,349 per screen.Kambakkht Ishq debuted at number 14 in the United States and number 11 in Australia, accumulating $768,542 from 100 screens in the former and $152,626 from 17 screens in the latter. As of 29 July 2009, Kambakkht Ishq has grossed a total of £681,154 in the U.K. and $1,445,739 in the U.S.

Critical response

= Upon release, the film met with negative reviews. Noyon Jyoti Parasara from AOL India concluded, "The film has nothing going for it. It has a worryingly bad script, horrible screenplay, traumatising dialogues and unpleasant music." Parasara further explained, "Kambakkht Ishq is a shame when it comes to watching Indian films on the world stage." Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN, who gave the film 1 star out of 5, noted that Kambakkht Ishq "is a loud, vulgar and seriously offensive film". Taran Adarsh of indiaFM described Kambakkht Ishq as a film that would "strike a chord with the youth and those who relish zany and madcap entertainers". He praised the performances, direction, and writing, noting that the film would "see an earth-shattering opening weekend and a historic Week 1." Rachel Saltz from The New York Times concluded that "[the film] has only one frantic desire: to entertain. It spottily succeeds, despite its frequently crude humor, relentless pace and a few unpalatable racial bits."