R... Rajkumar

R... Rajkumar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Prabhu Deva
Produced by	Viki Rajani Sunil Lulla
Written by	Prabhu Deva Shiraz Ahmed (dialogues)
Screenplay by	Prabhu Deva Sunil Kumar Agrawal Ravi S. Sundaram
Story by	Prabhu Deva
Starring	Shahid Kapoor Sonakshi Sinha Sonu Sood
Music by	Songs: Pritam Background Score: Sandeep Chowta
Cinematography	Mohana Krishna
Edited by	Ballu Saluja
Production company	Next Gen Films
Distributed by	Eros International
Release date	6 December 2013 (2013-12-06)
Running time	145 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹400 million (US$6.2 million)
Box office	₹745 million (US$12 million)

R... Rajkumar (earlier known as Rambo Rajkumar) is a 2013 Indian action-masala film co-written and directed by Prabhu Deva.^[1] Produced by Viki Rajani and Sunil Lulla, the film stars Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles.^[2] The theatrical trailer of R... Rajkumar was unveiled on 1 October 2013 on YouTube to mostly positive viewer response.^[3] The film released on 6 December 2013, and received a mixed response from critics, though managed to get a decent opening at the box office, becoming a commercial success and helped revive Kapoor's career.^[4]

Plot

Romeo Rajkumar (Shahid Kapoor) is an aimless youth who arrives in Dhartipur, a small town ruled by two drug barons named Shivraj Gurjar (Sonu Sood) and his arch enemy Manik Parmar (Ashish Vidyarthi), controlled by a Mafia don named Ajit Taaka (Srihari), who operates in Hong Kong. Rajkumar begins working for Shivraj. But his life changes forever when he claps eyes on the beautiful, educated Chanda (Sonakshi Sinha). Unknown to him, Chanda is an orphan who is being raised by Manik Parmar. After some persistent wooing, Chanda falls for Rajkumar's charms. Just when their love was about to flourish, Shivraj and Parmar compromise and Parmar decides to get Chanda married to Shivraj, against Chanda's wish. Angered Rajkumar beats Shivraj's men and challenges him, saying that he will marry Chanda in front of Shivraj. Furious, Shivraj plans to get Rajkumar killed in an encounter by his pet police officer. But in return, gets a shocking surprise when it is revealed that Rajkumar actually works for Don Ajit Takka and was sent to Dhartipur only to take over the drug cartel to which both Shivraj and Parmar owe allegiance. Rajkumar captures Shivraj's truck full of drugs and drives it to Takka. After giving Shivraj's stolen truck to Takka, he discovers that the truck was empty. In a twist of events, it turns out that Shivraj and Takka had joined hands, and purposely made Rajkumar steal the empty truck. Shivraj and Takka brutally kill Rajkumar and bury him. Shivraj starts his wedding celebrations with Chanda, only to be interrupted by the still alive Rajkumar, who is shown to have been rescued by one of Shivraj's henchmen after he was buried. Shivraj's men back off, because they are now friends with Rajkumar, hence leading to a one on one fight between the two. Finally, Rajkumar kills Shivraj with a power punch to the neck and later kills Don Takka with a ceramic tile. The film ends with all the men beating Parmar, while a severely injured Rajkumar and Chanda walk away hand in hand happily.

Cast

• Shahid Kapoor as Romeo Rajkumar
• Sonakshi Sinha as Chanda
• Sonu Sood as Shivraj Gurjar
• Ashish Vidyarthi as Manik Parmar
• Asrani as Pandit
• Mukul Dev as Qamar Ali
• Srihari as Ajit Taaka^[5]
• Poonam Jhawer as Bindu
• Ashok Samarth as Inspector
• Charmy Kaur (Special appearance in song "Gandi Baat")
• Prabhu Deva (Special appearance in song "Gandi Baat")
• Ragini Dwivedi (Special appearance in song "Kaddu Katega")
• Scarlett Mellish Wilson (Special appearance in song "Kaddu Katega")
• Namrata Asrani as Jason
• Ankitaa Asrani as Shouter

Production

Sonakshi Sinha performed some action scenes in the film.^[6] Charmy Kaur shot for an item song "Gandi Baat" for the film in June 2013.^[7] Kannada actress Ragini Dwivedi made her Bollywood entry in the item song "Kaddu Katega" which also featured Scarlett Mellish Wilson.^[8][9][10]

The film was first titled Rambo Rajkumar which is also the name of a veteran stunt director from south India. According to reports, the makers of the original Rambo series had copyrighted the word Rambo making it unavailable for usage by other filmmakers. As a result, the makers decided on a title change for the film. However, since the film's title is already known among the audience the makers decided on dropping a few letters from the title rechristening it to R... Rajkumar.^[11] After the film's title change, Shahid Kapoor's character in the film, which was Rambo Rajkumar initially, was also changed.^[12] During its filming, Kapoor narrowly avoided serious burns during a stunt sequence.^[13] Song sequence was shot at Great Rann of Kutch.^[14]

After the film's release and subsequent success, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which oversees the famous Academy Awards, sent a formal letter to producer Viki Rajani asking for a copy of the film's script to be kept in the Oscar Library. This is the fifth Bollywood film, after Lagaan, Heroes (2008 film), Rock On!!, and Guzaarish, to be requested for this honor by the Academy. Speaking of the request, Viki Rajani said, "It's a privilege that our movie script has been recognized internationally and it's an honour for us to be a part of the archives at the Academy Library. The movies was loved by the audience and has done well at the box-office. This is another happy moment for the entire team." Director Prabhu Deva, speaking of the request, said, "Making this movies has been a fun experience and this honour tops it all. What more can I ask for."^[15]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Pritam. Director Prabhu Deva was very keen to work with Pritam and finally got the chance to work with him. The first song of the film "Gandi Baat" was released on 16 October which is sung by Mika Singh and Kalpana Patowary. The other song released was "Saree Ke Fall Sa" sung by Antara Mitra and Nakash Aziz. The two songs became instant hits with the public. The entire album, consisting of six tracks composed by Pritam^[16] and lyrics penned by Anupam Amod and Mayur Puri, was released physically on 6 November 2013. The music recording engineer was Sukumar Dutta.

Critical reception

The film opened with mixed reviews from critics.

India Times rated 3/5 stated, "It has some 'must-haves' of a pot-boiler, but misses the real thing - a solid story."^[17] Tushar Joshi of Daily News and Analysis gave 3 out of 5 stars to the film and said, "Watch it if you are in the mood for a loud no-brainer that relies on formulaic over the top entertainment."^[18] Indian express criticized the film saying "R for Rubbish".^[19] Rajeev Masand criticised the film that it is "relentlessly ugly, you have to wonder how it qualifies as entertainment of any sort" and gave a rating "half out of five for Prabhu Deva's 'R... Rajkumar'. The half star is strictly for Pritam's music".^[20] Anupama Chopra of Hindustan Times called it "cheerfully, boisterously regressive" and also claimed that "The story is both abysmal and exhaustingly loud because when the hero isn't doing pyar, pyar, pyar, he's indulging in maar, maar, maar and men — defying every law of physics — are flying in all directions.^[21] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote:" R... RAJKUMAR doesn't work. It is Prabhu Dheva's weakest Hindi film to date".^[22]

Box office

Though critics were harsh, the film opened to a warm audience response. Movie was a Hit in domestic circuit but dull in overseas.^[23][24]

India

R... Rajkumar had an average to good opening day occupancy with an average occupancy of 40% with the film performing its best in places like Gujarat, Maharashtra, CP Berar and Rajasthan with 50% occupancy percentage while it lagged in North Indian circuits with 30% occupancy in places like Delhi and Punjab.^[25] The film had a good opening day with collections of ₹90 million (US$1.4 million). The second day collections were ₹85 million (US$1.3 million) and the third day collections were ₹105 million (US$1.6 million), taking the weekend total to ₹280 million (US$4.4 million).^[26] The first week collections were ₹438 million (US$6.8 million) nett.^[27][28] The film collected ₹12.25-2.5 crore (US$−390,000) on its second Friday and ₹13-3.25 crore (US$−510,000) on its second Saturday taking its 10-day total collection to ₹530 million (US$8.3 million).^[29][30][31] The film collected ₹27.5 million (US$430,000) in its second Monday taking its tally to a total of ₹548 million (US$8.5 million).^[32] The film collected over ₹160 million (US$2.5 million) in its second week taking its total to over ₹600 million (US$9.4 million).^[33] The film had lifetime domestic collections of ₹640 million (US$10 million), and emerged as a "box office hit".^[34][35]

Overseas

R... Rajkumar had collections of $1 million in its first weekend overseas.^[36] R... Rajkumar collected $1.7 million (₹103 million/₹103 million) from overseas market.^[37][38]

Worldwide

"R... Rajkumar" had worldwide collection of ₹74.45 crore (US$12 million) after a three weeks run. It was declared a hit and was the 11th highest grossing film of 2013 in India.^[35]

References

External links

• R... Rajkumar on IMDb
• R... Rajkumar at Bollywood Hungama