Introduction

A nude humanoid alien lands on Earth on a research mission in Rajasthan, India, and is stranded when the remote control to summon his spaceship is stolen. In Belgium, an Indian woman, Jagat "Jaggu" Janani Sahni, meets a Pakistani man, Sarfaraz Yousuf, and falls in love with him. Her father objects to their relationship, citing their different religions, and consults their family Astrologer, Tapasvi Maharaj, who predicts Sarfaraz will betray Jaggu. Determined to prove them wrong, Jaggu asks Sarfaraz to marry her, only to be heartbroken after receiving an unsigned letter calling off their wedding.

Plot

Jaggu returns to India and becomes a journalist. She is intrigued after finding the alien distributing pamphlets about a "missing" God. She earns his trust by rescuing him when he attempts to take money from a temple's donation box as a "refund" for God's broken promises, and he opens up to her. He stole clothes and money from a couple having sex in a car and befriended a bandmaster, Bhairon Singh. He learned Bhojpuri at a brothel by holding hands and exchanging memories with a prostitute and started looking for the thief who stole his remote in Delhi, where he earned the name "PK" (drunk) as people thought he was intoxicated.

The Wrong Number

When told only God can help him, he began practising many Indian religions, including Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity and Islam, attempting to find "God" to no avail. He found out Tapasvi had his remote but refused to return it, claiming it was a gift from God. Believing his story after a brief hesitation, Jaggu promises to help PK. After Jaggu pranks an unknown caller in front of him, PK naively conjectures Tapasvi and his other godmen must be unintentionally dialling a "wrong number" to communicate with God, advising the public against engaging in meaningless rituals for their prayers. Intrigued, Jaggu encourages the public to expose fraudulent godmen by sending their videos to her news channel. Gradually, this "wrong number" campaign turns into a popular mass movement, much to the dismay of Tapasvi.

The Right Number

Meanwhile, Bhairon finds the thief in Rajasthan and informs PK he had sold the remote to Tapasvi. PK realises Tapasvi was a fraud all along, intentionally misleading people. Bhairon and the thief are killed in a terrorist attack. Tapasvi confronts PK on air, asking him what the "right number" is. PK claims people should believe in the "real" God that created them instead of other fraudulent godmen and their "duplicate" God. Tapasvi claims he has a direct connection to "God", citing his prediction of Sarfaraz's betrayal to prove Muslims to be liars. Having absorbed Jaggu's memories earlier, PK claims he can disprove his prediction and reveals Sarfaraz had not written the letter to Jaggu, citing the presence of another bride as a possible recipient that day. Shocked, Jaggu contacts the Pakistani Embassy in Belgium, where Sarfaraz worked part-time, and learns Sarfaraz has been awaiting her call for a long time, proving he still loves her. It is revealed Sarfaraz had found the same letter that day and, believing it to be from Jaggu, stopped contacting her. Jaggu and Sarfaraz tearfully reconnect while Jaggu’s father realises Tapasvi’s true colours, forcing him to return the remote to PK.

Epilogue

PK is able to return to his planet with his remote. When leaving, he takes two suitcases full of audio tapes, having filled them with recordings of Jaggu's voice. Jaggu listens to the tapes in his absence and finds the love note he wrote for her earlier, realising he had fallen in love with her but chose not to confess due to her feelings for Sarfaraz. She chooses not to confront PK directly and tearfully watches him walk towards his spaceship. After his departure, Jaggu publishes a book about PK, grateful for her experience with him. A year later, PK returns to Earth on a new research mission on human nature with more members of his species.

Awards & Recognition

The film received 8 nominations at the 60th Filmfare Awards, including Best Actor for Khan, Best Film, and Best Director for Hirani, winning two. Additionally, it won five Producers Guild Film Awards, and two Screen Awards. PK garnered the Telstra People's Choice Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Produced on a budget of ₹1.22 billion, PK was the first Indian film to gross more than ₹7 billion and US$100 million worldwide. At the time of its release, it emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time. The film's final worldwide gross was ₹769.89 crore (US$118.92 million). It currently stands as the tenth highest grossing Indian film worldwide and seventh highest-grossing Hindi film of all-time.