Players Movie Trailer, Star Cast, Story, Songs, Review, Box office details :
Players movie is a 2012 Bollywood action thriller robbery film directer are Abbas and Mustan Burmawalla and jointly producer Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Burmawala Partners. This film leading Star cast is Vinod Khanna,Bobby Deol, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonam Kapoor, Sikandar Kher and Omi Vaidya in the Main roles.while Aftab Shivdasani appears in a guest appearance.
Players movie story follows a team of players, consisting of a con-man, an automobile expert who doubles up as a seductress, an illusionist, an explosives expert, an expert hacker and an actor turned prosthetic makeup artist, who plan to steal gold worth rs. 100 billion from a moving train. During the robbery they are double crossed by members of their own team.
Players movie was named one of the most anticipated Bollywood films of 2012, as it received hype ever since it was announced to be a remake of The Italian Job, was made on a huge budget, had a multistar cast, was filmed in foreign locations as New Zealand, Russia and even the North Pole—which was a first for a Bollywood film and was heavily promoted. After release the film received mixed reviews from critics. Many praised the action sequences and the performances of Neil Nitin Mukesh, Omi Vaidya, and Bipasha Basu, but also criticized the screenplay, length, pace, music, and Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan’s performances. It opened to a poor response at the box office, despite having a wide release. The shocking failure of the film led to many trade industry analysts reinstating the belief of a jinx in Bollywood that the first-released film of the year always fails at the box office, which happened to the films Halla Bol (2008), Chandni Chowk To China (2009), Pyaar Impossible! and Dulha Mil Gaya (2010).
Directer : Abbas-Mustan
Producer : Pappu Vaswani,Mohammed Burmawala,Abbas-Mustan,Ajit Andhare
Writer : Sudip Sharma
Screenplay : Rohit Jugraj,Sudip Sharma
Story : Troy Kennedy Martin
Starring : Vinod Khanna,Bobby Deol,Abhishek Bachchan,Bipasha Basu,Neil Nitin Mukesh,Sonam Kapoor,Sikandar Kher,Omi Vaidya
Music/Songs : Pritam
Background Score : Sandeep Shirodkar
Cinematography : Ravi Yadav
Editor : Hussain Burmawala
Production company : Burmawala Partners
Distributor : Viacom 18 Motion Pictures
Release date : 4 January 2012
Running time : 163 minutes
Language : Hindi
Players movie Trailer :
Players movie Story :
Mastermind Charlie Mascarenhas (Abhishek Bachchan) and hes partner Riya (Bipasha Basu) are one of the greatest pairs of thieves in India. Charlie’s friend, Raj (Aftab Shivdasani), is killed by the Russian mafia. At Raj’s funeral, his wife hands Charlie a CD containing information about the transfer of gold by a train from Russia to Romania. Charlie decides to rob the train with the help of imprisoned Don and con-artist Victor Braganza (Vinod Khanna). They hire a team of criminals to join them in the robbery. The group includes Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh), a world-class hacker, an explosives expert Bilal Bashir (Sikander Kher), a prosthetic makeup artist Sunny (Omi Vaidya), and an illusionist Ronnie (Bobby Deol).
Charlie is also having an affair with Victor’s daughter, Naina (Sonam Kapoor), who knows nothing about her father and Charlie’s criminal activities. The group devises a plan to rob the Russian train in the sliest way possible. Spider hacks into a Russian satellite system and Ronnie uses his illusion to trick the soldiers guarding the gold while the rest of the team transfer the gold from the train. The robbery is executed successfully. However, while celebrating, Spider double crosses the gang and tries to flee with all of the gold. Spider is stopped by Ronnie, who is then shot multiple times by Spider’s assassins. The group are chased by the assassins then Ronnie and Riya are killed. Charlie, Bilal, and Sunny manage to escape after Spider blows up the location and flees with the gold. Charlie calls Victor to tell him about the successful robbery mission, but Naina overhears the conversation. At the same time, Spider’s assassins break into the house and murder Victor. Naina decides to cut off all contact with Charlie. Over the course of a year, Charlie contacts various gold dealers to learn which one has the stolen gold that Spider escaped with.
In New Zealand, the gang locate a dealer who is in contact with Spider. Charlie explains to Naina that the gang only wanted to steal the gold so they could help achieve Victor’s dream of building a big orphanage. Naina understands and teams up with Charlie to exact revenge on Spider. In New Zealand, they discover that Riya is still alive and living there. She explains that she also wants revenge on Spider and provides the gang with the information about Spider’s residence. Unaware of her plans, Spider flirts with Naina and takes her to his villa. Spider finds a hidden camera in Naina’s dress and realises that she is working with Charlie, who runs in to rescue her and tells Spider that he will steal all of the gold within 48 hours. Spider tries to move the gold to another country, but the gang, using three large trucks and by hacking into the traffic system, take the gold and hide it inside three Mini Coopers. Just as they are about to leave New Zealand, they are caught by Spider and discover that Riya was working with Spider all along.
Spider tries to force the gang to hand over the gold, but the trunks of the Mini Coopers are empty. Spider betrays Riya and threatens to kill her. Before Charlie can reveal the real location of the gold, Riya shoots herself and Spider stabs Charlie. Spider tries to escape, but Sunny and Bilal stop him and beat him up badly. Naina, who wants revenge for the death of Victor, shoots Spider thrice. It is then revealed that the real Mini Coopers containing the gold are elsewhere. As the four leave the scene, Spider makes a final call to the Russian mafia and tells them that Charlie has stolen Russian gold. The gang take the real Mini Coopers and leave for India, but the Mafia stop them to check the cars and once again they are found to be empty. It is then revealed that the Mini Coopers were made out of the actual gold itself. In the end, Bilal opens a car dealership business, Sunny becomes a theatre actor, Charlie and Naina open Victor’s dream orphanage and Charlie raises Ronnie’s daughter as his own.
Star cast of the film :
- Vinod Khanna as Victor Braganza
- Abhishek Bachchan as Charlie Mascrenhas
- Bipasha Basu as Riya Thapar
- Sonam Kapoor as Naina Braganza
- Bobby Deol as Ronnie Grewal
- Neil Nitin Mukesh as Spider
- Sikandar Kher as Bilal Basheer
- Omi Vaidya as Sunny Mehra
- Johnny Lever as MC/Mangal Chopra and BC/Budh Chopra
- Vyacheslav Razbegaev as General
- Sumit Sarkar as Commissioner of Police
- Aftab Shivdasani as Raj (special appearance)
- Shweta Bhardwaj as Shaila (special appearance)
- Jo Holley as Head Cop
Pre-production /Production development of the film :
Pre-production stage , the entire cast underwent physical training to the requirement of the roles they were playing. Abhishek Bachchan was required to tone up the most as he was the lead character and had to perform dangerous train stunts. For her role Sonam Kapoor, was required to learn to drive a car, although she had no previous experience. She practised in the small lanes of Juhu and after reassurance from her father Anil Kapoor to the directors, Sonam drove, only to crash the car. Abbas Burmawalla commented on this “Our action director Allan Amin felt that she should get comfortable zipping around in the Mini Cooper. So about 10 days before we started shooting, Sonam started practicing driving the Mini. However, on the first day, she accelerated while reversing, and banged into a lamppost”. Bipasa Basu was required to wear a bikini during one of the songs, had gained weight during the year and worked with personal trainer Paul Britto, to ensure the perfect body. Her regime included functional training with abdominal exercises, kickboxing, aerobic exercise, stretching and weight training. Shweta Bhardwaj, who was playing a lead character in the film, was also required to physically tone up for an entirely different bikini scene.
Film shooting done mainly in India, in Goa, started on 9 November 2010 and continued until the end of December 2010. The song “Buddhi Do Bhagwaan” was filmed on Miramar beach in Goa.
The second phase of film shooting started in New Zealand in mid January 2011, in locations across Wellington and Auckland. Wellington City Council closed some areas of the city centre for two weeks so there would be no problems in shooting. Film Scenes were shot across the City to Sea Bridge, Okarito Lagoon on New Zealand’s South Island, Te Papa’s Awesome Forces Museum, Cuba Mall and in the Tulsi Indian restaurant. The replication of the “Mini Coopers” scene from the 2003 version of The Italian Job was filmed at Wellington Airport, which Abhishek Bachchan had difficulty with due to his height, as he could not get in and out of the cars quickly. There was some controversy when airport officials refused to give permission for filming when they felt it was dangerous; the scene required a plane to overfly three Minis, which were being driven by Bachchan, Kapoor and Kher, and miss by inches. The traffic jam sequence involving the Minis was also shot in Wellington. Sixth months before shooting had commenced in New Zealand, Abbas Mustan met with the Tourism Board and Film Council in Wellington and they put up LED signs, to notify local residents of the street closure during that weekend. The crew finished shooting and left New Zealand just days before an earthquake hit the country.
The third schedule of shooting, which was the longest and most important, started on April 2011 in parts of Siberia, St Petersburg and Murmansk. For the shooting in Siberia, the directors had a lot of difficulty acquiring permission. Similarly they had also faced several problems during the shooting in new Zealand. Describing this ordeal Mustan Burmawalla said “We had to seek lot of permissions for a traffic jam scene to be shot in New Zealand and that took a long time. While, in Russia we faced language problem, we appointed about 25 interpreters. We needed them to help us about basic things like where to go to eat etc,”. Due to the difficulty allotting dates, Bachchan had to leave another project by Ram Gopal Varma titled Department, whom Varma would later blame for the dismal performance of the film at the box office. The sequences involving the train were directed by Filmfare award winning, stunt director Allan Amin. Abhishek refused to have a body double for the scenes and performed all the dangerous stunts himself. During the sequence, he had to balance himself atop two trains which were traveling at approximately 100 km/h. He hit his head on a rod on top of the train, but still managed to complete the scene.During another scene Abhishek was left hanging by a rack on the train for around 20 hours. While filming took place there, a group of Russian soldiers learnt that an Indian film was shooting nearby and joined the crew on the sets and requested to meet all the stars.
Some of the scenes were filmed close to the Arctic Circle, Arctic Ocean and at the North Pole, which was the first time a Bollywood film had been filmed there. However a slight problem started ; no food was available because of the extremely cold climate and everyone had to manage on packets of soups. Shooting in Russia ended in late July 2011. The cast flew back to India, finalised a few last minute shots and songs, before the film went into the post production stage.
Post-Production and Release of the film :
The release of Players was repeatedly delayed; it was initially planned for a Diwali release but the film was not completed in time, as the story demanded high level action scene film shooting. Hussain Burmawala took six-and-a-half months to complete the editing, which is the longest time taken for any Indian film to be edited. The release was expected on 9 December 2011 alongside Ladies vs Ricky Bahl and Agent Vinod but was further delayed until 26 December, to make more time for promotions. Abhishek Bachchan requested that the film was released at a later date as he wanted to avoid a clash with Shahrukh Khan’s Don 2. Players was finally released on 6 January 2012, making it the first released Bollywood film of 2012.
Before its release, Players gained a lot of curiosity from Bollywood movie buffs and critics, ever since the first preview which generated a positive response from the audience. The directors Abbas-Mustan, who are known for their adaptations of Hollywood films into classic thrillers, returned to direction after quite some time. They had promised to break the boundaries of the action genre, as the major action stunts and sequences in the film were performed on par with Hollywood by the actors themselves. This is rarely seen or done in Bollywood. Sonam Kapoor who had previously played mostly girl next door type roles, brought a completely different look to her previous films, which attracted positive attention and was tagged as “sexy” by the media once the films promo’s released. Another reason the film had created curiosity was because none of the actors expect Bipasa Basu had enjoyed much box office success, while the rest were relative newcomers. Abhishek Bachchan, who had been in the industry for over 10 years, had endured a series of flops, in spite of this the directors were confident of him.Players was named as one of the most-awaited films of 2012 by Mid Day, IBN Live, Hindustan Times, India Today and The Times of India.
The first look at the film, along with teasers and an extended promo was revealed on 3 November 2011, on Kaun Banega Crorepati, which starred Abhishek’s father, Amitabh Bachchan as the host. Amitabh Bachchan also helped to promote the film on his blog and Twitter feed. The theatrical trailer was also released on 3 November 2011, on the movie’s official YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Players had an extended promotion schedule since its release was delayed for an extra month. Promotion for the film was orchestrated by using tactics never seen before. The campaign started at the music launch on 13 December 2011, where the team promoted the film in a first event of its kind, as the lead actors Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sikandar Kher and Omi Vaidya performed live stunts.Bobby Deol, who played an illusionist in the film, performed the opening act as he disappeared from two different towers. Sonam Kapoor drove an armoured truck through a golden brick wall and then drove around the arena. She was followed by Sikander Kher, who according to his role of an explosives expert, set off multiple explosions with a remote control, throwing a car 40 feet into the air before it hit another car, blowing both cars up. Omi Vaidya and Mukesh spoke some dialogues from the film. Abhishek was followed in a car by Bipasa on a pillion as they both drove through a ring of fire and blew a bus up.Abhishek fractured one of his fingers during the stunt when he drove a car through a sheet of glass and performed the doughnut act and a 360-degree wheelie.
Promotion continued at various airports and railway stations like the Delhi Metro where Abhishek, Mukesh and Sonam fabricated a train heist similar to the one in the film, after which they travelled inside the Metro, followed by a media interaction and later gave away some merchandise from the film. At Chandigarh Airport, the actors spoke about their characters and signed autographs. Players was also promoted elsewhere in India, such as the Ambience Mall and the Inorbit Mall. Sonam cast as a guest on Imagine TV’s Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan and Abhishek promoted the film on Arjun Rampal’s show Love 2 Hate U, where he met his biggest hater.Sonam Kapoor and Neil also appeared on reality show Bigg Boss’s season 5 during the semi finals, four days before Players was released. Players was heavily promoted in London with help from the cast of the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, including Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton and the director F. Gary Gray. The film was released in UK cinemas by B4U Pictures. The producers of Players held “Go for Gold” competitions where the winner would meet the cast and spend a day with them.Players had its worldwide premiere in Dubai on 4 January 2012. It was held at the Grand Cineplex in the Global Village and was attended by Abhishek, Bipasa, Sonam and Neil. Instead of the traditional red carpet, a golden carpet was used in keeping with the theme of the film.Sonam caused controversy over the outfit she had worn during the premiere, giving her a busty look and was verbally attacked by Fashion bloggers.
Review of the film :
Public Review of the film :
Players Movie Songs / Music :
The film music composer and directer is Pritam and the background score composer is Sandeep Shirodkar. The lyricist is Ashish Pandit. The music rights were sold to T-Series and released on 30 November 2011. The main track used in the teaser and trailer is “Anti You” from Blue Stahli’s eponymous album Blue Stahli.
Sandeep Shirodkar is the composer of the film score.
- “Jis Jagah Pe Khatam (Players Theme)”……….Neeraj Shridhar, Siddharth Basrur, Mauli Dave
- “Jhoom Jhoom Ta Ja”……………………………………Ritu Pathak
- “Ho Gayi Tun”…………………………………………………Yashita Yashpal, Bob
- “Buddhi Do Bhagwaan”………………………….Shruti Pathak, Abhishek Bachchan
- “Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai”…………………..Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal
- “Jhoom Jhoom Ta Hoon Main”……………………..Siddharth Basrur
- “Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai (Reprise)”…………..Nikhil D’Souza, Priyani Vani
- “Jhoom Jhoom Ta Hoon Main (Film Version)”………….Arijit Singh
- “Jis Jagah Pe Khatam (Remix)”………….Neeraj Shridhar, Siddharth Basrur, Mauli Dave
- “Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai (Remix)”……………..Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal
“Ho Gayi Tun” Full Video Song
Box office collection of the film :
This film is opened with high expectation and hughe star cast and Budget but overall failed to get Box-office success.
- First Day………….. rs. 4.63 crores
- Saturday…………. rs. 4.47 crores
- Sunday…………… rs. 5.47 crores
- First Weekend……rs. 14.58 crores
- Monday………………rs. 1.95 crores
- Tuesday……………..rs. 1.85 crores
- First Week…………..rs. 21.52 crores
- Second Week……..rs. 5.90 crores
- Third Week………….rs. 2.37 crores
- Lifetime India (net)…rs. 30 crores
- Worldwide Gross…..rs. 49 crores
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