Starring Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar in their debuts, it tells the story of two young college students from different castes who fall in love, sparking conflict between their families.

A woman from a nearby slum, Suman Akka who lives with her young son, intervenes and saves Archi and Parshya from certain tragedy.

While editing it, he came across the story of Sairat after he realised that many people did not watch Fandry because of its lack of songs, and decided to make a more commercial film.

"[5] Manjule decided to tell the story from a woman's perspective, since he was "fed up of the male-dominated culture and the films" with a "muscular hero saving the damsel in distress".

[5] He called the film's title self-explanatory that might imply "freedom of thought, liberation and progressive ideas" for some and "sheer wildness and recklessness" for others.

[1] 15 year old Rinku Rajguru went with her mother to see Manjule shoot a film in Akluj, her village in Solapur district.

[1] Twenty-year-old graduate student Akash Thosar was cast as Prashant Kale after he met Bharat Manjule at a railway station and showed him some of his photos.

[1] Tanaji Galgunde and Arbaz Shaikh played supporting roles in the film, and Manjule made a cameo appearance as a cricket commentator.

[7] Manjule cited the reasons being a "lot of locations, a huge number of characters and many complicated crowd scenes" in the film.

[13] Rajguru and Thosar lived with Manjule at his home in Pune for two to three months before filming, where they would discuss the script and rehearse scenes daily.

[19] The four-song soundtrack includes Western classical music recorded at Sony Scoring Stage in Hollywood, California, a first for an Indian film.

[22] Sairat premiered at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival as a part of the Generation 14plus section, where it received a standing ovation.

[24][25] It was released with English subtitles in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Kolkata, Bhilai, Raipur, Bhiwadi, Karnataka, and Telangana.

[27][8] Due to Sairat's popularity, additional shows at midnight and 3:00 am were introduced at a theatre in Rahimatpur in Satara district.

[31][32] In April, Manjule filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police after the film was leaked online two days before its theatrical release.

[36] Cybercrime police arrested a Byculla (Mumbai)-based cable operator for broadcasting the pirated version of Sairat on his network.

"[50] Mihir Bhanage gave a positive review: "The film can be divided into two parts; the first one, a dream and the second one, reality and both strike a chord.

"[51] Harish Wankhede in his review in Tehelka called the film 'a radical entry in the populist-fantasy ‘love story’ genre.

Her heroic posturing and confident outlook make her the lead hero of the film while pushing others to the periphery as dependent characters.

The director allows Archi's character to break the stereotypes of a village girl but on the other hand asserts the power of her feudal-upper caste lineage.

[53] Divya Unny from OPEN wrote: "The three-hour-long film draws the audience in with plenty of songs and slow-mos, emotion and drama, and then serves us reality right when we aren’t expecting it.

[55] J. Hurtado of ScreenAnarchy called the film a "singular, astonishing, breathtaking achievement": "You owe it to yourself to experience the beauty, exhaltation, and pain that Sairat has to offer".

"[57] Uday Bhatia of Mint compared the film to Michael Haneke's Funny Games; "both derive their sting from the way they play with audience expectations—raising hopes, dashing them, then raising them again.

[59] Rochona Majumdar of The Indian Express wrote a positive review: "To describe it as a story of inter-caste love that ends brutally would be to do grave injustice to Manjule’s portrayal of a slice of contemporary India.

"[60] Suhas Bhasme of The Wire noted that Sairat positions the issues of "caste discrimination and caste-based violence centre stage, which have often been denied or overlooked by mainstream Marathi movies.

"[62] According to Ranjib Mazumdar of The Quint, the film refreshingly changes gender roles with its strong female character: "[Archie] is like a body of free water, unaware of limits and customs, flowing with a convinced passion we rarely see in our heroines.

"[63] S. Shivakumar of The Hindu gave the film a positive review, praising Rajguru's performance and Manjule's direction: "Nagraj excels in making the dramatic scenes look realistic, effortlessly manipulating your emotions.

[78] According to Smitha Verma of The Financial Express, Sairat was a turning point for the Marathi film industry which restored faith in distributors of regional cinema.

[2] Its lead actors, Rinku Rajguru and Akash Thosar, became overnight celebrities;[79][80] in January 2017, the Election Commission of India made them brand ambassadors for National Voters' Day to encourage citizens to vote.

[83] Several fans of the film formed the Sairat Marriage Group, an organisation with nearly 100 volunteers across Maharashtra, to help runaway couples.