Kabir Singh has indubitably made a lot of money at the box office, and was massively popular among audiences, if not the critics (who savaged it in their reviews). I think even Arjun Reddy had the same effect – loved and adored by audiences, while being criticized by critics. The two movies are functionally the same movie with different actors – it’s just that Kabir Singh made much more money because it happened to be a Bollywood movie, and so made a splash across the country. Arjun Reddy probably was restricted more to the Southern Indian states.

So, anyhow, I don’t know if Kabir Singh can be considered more popular than Arjun Reddy. Both movies received similarly scathing reviews – if anything, Kabir Singh probably got more scathing reviews. But anyway, even if we disregard the critics, I think there is one factor that Kabir Singh had that Arjun Reddy didn’t. I allude of course to the wondrously beautiful Kiara Advani.

She was awesome in Kabir Singh – I think a major part of the movie’s success should be credited to her. If Shahid had been paired with anyone else, perhaps someone not bestowed with as much pulchritude as Kiara, then I highly doubt that Kabir Singh would have been as massive.

So, to conclude, I don’t think that it was the Shahid Kapoor factor that tilted the scale towards Kabir Singh – I think it was the Kiara Advani factor (and of course, the fact that the movie was a Bollywood movie, and so had the advantage of being released across the nation, as opposed to Arjun Reddy). So, a combo effect of Kiara and the fact that it was a Bollywood movie.