In 1973, Maharani Gitanjali is a princess to a royal family in Rajasthan. As every royal family has loads of gold to themselves, so does this royal family, but her ancestors did not hand it over to the government of the country even after the ancestral reign was over. In 1975, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi declared the state of emergency in the country. Around the same time, Sanjeev, an influential person in the Congress government, had been snubbed badly by Gitanjali in 1973.To seek revenge, Sanjeev asks army officer Colonel Rudra Pratap Singh to confiscate all the gold in Gitanjali’s possession and to put her behind bars. Rudra follows Sanjeev’s instructions and imprisons Gitanjali after forcibly taking possession of the gold rightfully belonging to the government but still held by her. Rudra asks his trusted lieutenants, Major Seher Singh and Captain Somesh to transfer all the gold to Delhi safely to the government and for that, he gives Seher Singh a custom-made truck with a powerful safe in it, in which he keeps all the confiscated gold. As Rudra and Seher Singh are discussing, Sanjana, Gitanjali’s trusted aide, is sent by her to eavesdrop their conversation and get a whiff of their plan. Gitanjali then plans an entire scheme and wants Sanjana to accompany Bhawani Singh in getting all the gold back and eventually release her from the jail. Gitanjali briefs Bhawani Singh, her trusted lieutenant, about the gold and how she needs it all back to look after the people in her village. The loyal Bhawani Singh promises to retrieve the gold and return the same to Gitanjali with whom he shares a romantic relationship. Bhawani Singh with the support of Daliya and Guruji, besides Sanjana, of course, chalk out an entire plan and seek out on a mission. The four follow the truck in which Seher Singh and his deputy, Somesh, are carrying the gold to the Delhi. The group of four, at one point in the journey, takes control of the truck after throwing out Seher Singh and Somesh. The job now is to open the strong safe, something at which Guruji is adept. Meanwhile, Seher Singh, boss Rudra Pratap Singh and other army and police officers are hot on the trail of Bhawani Singh and the truck. At one point, the army officers seek the help of police officer Durjan but Bhawani Singh and his team members outwit him too. But before Bhawani Singh can return the gold to Gitanjali Devi, a very shocking revelation is unveiled in front of him, that Gitanjali used him for her personal pleasure and motives, and that Seher was her aide. Bhawani reveals that he already knew dark truth about Gitanjali and his team decided to distribute gold among poor people. After the war between Seher and Bhawani’s team ends, Gitanjali realised that she is alone in the desert with a low chance of survival while Bhawani and his team have escaped.
Cast
Ajay Devgn as Bhavani Singh
Emraan Hashmi as Dalia
Ileana D'Cruz as Rani Gitanjali Devi
Esha Gupta as Sanjana
Vidyut Jammwal as Army Officer Major Seher Singh
Sanjay Mishra as Tikla aka Guruji
Priyanshu Chatterjee as Sanjay Kumar Mishra
Sharad Kelkar as Police Inspector Durjan
Lankesh Bhardwaj as Supdt. Meena
Adil Hussain as Officer
Denzil Smith as Rudra Singh
Ravi Kale as Babu Moshai
Aishmita Meena as Village Lady
Sunny Leone as an item girl in the song "Piya More"
Production
Development
In January 2015, Ajay Devgn signed Milan Luthria's Baadshaho, marking his fourth collaboration with the director after Kachche Dhaage, Chori Chori and Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. This was the third collaboration of Emraan Hashmi with the director after Once Upon A Time In Mumbai and The Dirty Picture. Luthria stated that besides directing he was also co-producing the film along with Bhushan Kumar's T-Series. Ankit Tiwari was music director.
Casting
Actresses Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Shruti Hassan and Priyanka Chopra were speculated as the lead actress opposite Ajay Devgn. Though Kareena Kapoor and Katrina Kaif liked the script, they declined the offer due to non-availability. The film was to star Diljit Dosanjh initially, though he opted out of the project subsequently and was replaced by Emraan Hashmi. Later in June 2016, actors Vidyut Jammwal, Ileana D'Cruz and Esha Gupta were officially confirmed to be in the cast. Priyanshu Chatterjee was cast in a special appearance for the role of the politician Sanjeev, modelled after Sanjay Gandhi. In August 2016, Sunny Leone was signed in for a special appearance in a song.
Filming
commenced on 15 August 2016 in Mumbai. The second schedule started on 1 December 2016 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The third schedule commenced on 19 January 2017. Ileana D'Cruz wrapped her part of filming on 5 March 2017. The Rajasthan schedule was wrapped up on 9 March 2017.
Release and Marketing
The makers of the film earlier announced that the films worldwide release would be on 26 January 2017. However, upon request from producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Rakesh Roshan of the films Raees and Kaabil respectively, Bhushan Kumar moved the worldwide release date to 12 May 2017. In early December 2016, Devgn announced 1 September 2017 as the worldwide release date.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on 19 August 2017 by T-Series, which consists of eight songs, composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Ankit Tiwari, Abhijit Vaghani, DJ Chetas and Traditional Folk. The songs "Mere Rashke Qamar" and "Socha Hai" are recreations for the film by lyricist Manoj Muntashir and composer Tanishk Bagchi. Their originals were written by Fana Buland Shehri and Sahir Ludhianvi, and were composed by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and R. D. Burman respectively.
