Batti Gul Meter Chalu (transl. Lights off, meter on; Hindi pronunciation: is a 2018 Indian drama film directed by Shree Narayan Singh and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Nitin Chandrachud, Nishant Pitti and Krishan Kumar. The film tells the story of inflated electricity bills in rural India and stars Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma and Yami Gautam.
Sushil Kumar “S.K.” Pant (Shahid Kapoor), Lalita “Nauti” Nautiyal (Shraddha Kapoor) and Sundar Mohan Tripathi (Divyendu Sharma) are childhood friends based in Tehri, Uttarakhand. S.K. is an unscrupulous lawyer making money from out-of-court settlements. Nauti is an over the top fashion designer who thinks highly of herself. Wanting to get married, she decides to date both her childhood friends, each for a week. Things turn sour as S.K catches Nauti and Tripathi kissing. Heartbroken, he starts taunting and avoiding them.
Tripathi’s small town printing press is charged with an inflated electricity bill of 1100,000 (US$2,000), which escalates to 5.4 million (US$71,000) in the following months. He along with Nauti visit S.K for a solution, but instead, he insults them. With nowhere to go, Tripathi commits suicide. S.K is taken aback by the events and has a change of heart. He decides to fight out against SPTL, the privatised electricity company responsible for the inflated bills. SPTL has Gulnaar Rizwi as their lawyer against SK for the case.
On the last sitting of case with S.K about to win, Tripathi resurfaces and reveals about his suicide attempt and his struggles regarding inflated bills. The Court clears Tripathi’s bill and cancels SPTL’s License. It also orders them to pay Tripathi 1 million (US$13,000), and others 100,000 (US$660) with similar complaints as a compensation. Tripathi is sentenced to six months of simple imprisonment for trying to dupe insurance company with his fake death. Gulnaar and S.K. are shown to be dating post the case.