Do not let the results of your actions be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction."

The verse from the Bhagwad Gita speaks of action without attachment to the outcome, and when conversing with filmmaker Ankit Sakhiya and actor Karan Joshi talk about their journey with Laalo - Shree Krishna Sada Sahaayate, the verse feels almost like an explanation of all that has transpired, with them and their film.

Released on October 10, 2025, Sakhiya's Gujarati-language devotional drama - also, starring Shruhad Goswami, Reeva Rachh, Karan Joshi, Mishty Kadecha and others - has since become the highest-grossing Gujarati film of all time and the first to cross Rs 120 crore worldwide. A Hindi-dubbed version followed on January 9, 2026. And now, the movie is being streamed on SonyLiv, enabling a wider reach. Yet, when the director and his lead actor dropped by the Ahmedabad Mirror office, the conversation kept returning to the basic thought behind the movie and a passion for filmmaking rather than numbers.

Reaching for people, rather than stars

"The initial thought was that the film should reach people. The Rs 100 crore is a by-product," Sakhiya asserted, stating that from the beginning, the ambition was not the box office but the audience, especially those outside the usual circuits of urban theatres. "From day one, we wanted the film to reach villages. If it didn't reach anywhere, we were ready to put up screens ourselves and show it in villages. Even if people paid Rs 20 or Rs 30. We just wanted people to see it," he explained.

The scale of what has followed since, is something the two are still processing. "It feels overwhelming... almost like a dream that we are trying to align with reality. But the real joy is that Gujarati cinema is getting respect. The Gujarati language is getting respect," Sakhiya shared with a smile.

Joshi, who plays Lalji Dhansukh Parmar - the troubled rickshaw driver known as Laalo - said life has changed in quieter ways. "We would say the same things earlier, but people didn't take us seriously. Now they do," he said, while insisting, "But we are ordinary artists. We just want to keep working honestly and working hard."

The film's origins lie in an unexpected moment of restlessness. In 2023, Sakhiya and Joshi were attending the MAMI Film Festival in Mumbai, watching two to three films a day. "We realised we don't belong only in the audience. We are filmmakers. We also have something to say. So why are we just sitting here watching films?" Sakhiya remembered thinking.

The decision to make Laalo followed almost instinctively. "If we made a bad film, we would still stand in front of the audience with our heads bowed. But we would stand," Joshi said of their decision.

Promoted by the audience's love

When the film was released, no one expected the phenomenon it would become. Even crossing

Rs 20-25 crore felt like an achievement at the time. What surprised them even more were the gestures from the audience. "People would come and touch our feet," Joshi said, still sounding bemused. "I understand touching the feet of Shruhad Goswami, who plays Lord Krishna, but ours?"

Sometimes the affection arrived in unexpected forms. "Aunties would give us Rs 500 as blessings," he added.

For Sakhiya, the moment that truly revealed the film's reach happened closer to home. A special screening was organised in his village square during Diwali. "The entire village sat down - rich and poor. They watched the film without an interval. At the end, everyone started dancing. Our lead actress Reeva (Rachh) began crying because she couldn't understand what was happening," he recollected.

Stories soon began reaching the team from theatres across Gujarat. In Rajkot, cinema owners told them the film had revived their halls. In another town, a theatre issued its first parking ticket to a tempo because so many people had arrived packed inside it.

"All of this has happened and sometimes we wonder - is Laalo truly ours?" Sakhiya said quietly.

The praise also came from within the film industry. Joshi recalled a moment that meant a great deal to them: filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra telling Sakhiya that he, who doesn't watch movies, had watched their movie and said, "You've made a good film," even offering his guidance for the future.

Sakhiya still sounds slightly awed by that gesture. "He is such a legend. And he spoke with such humility," he said, recollecting the advice the duo holds close to their heart. "He told us - stay the way you are and make films the way you are making them."

There were also moments during filming that the team now looks back on with a sense of quiet wonder and cites as divine intervention. At Damodar Kund in Junagadh, while shooting a scene in which Goswami emerges from the water, writer Krushansh Vaja spotted a group of schoolchildren who were visiting as part of a school trip. "Vaja said, let's keep them in the background. The teachers agreed. And then, when Krishna came out of the water, the children shouted 'Jai!' It just happened. Many things worked out like that," Sakhiya recalled.

He paused, searching for the right words. "We would say one of the main reasons this film worked is Krishna," he said with a firm belief.