Race (2008 film)

Race
File:Race-wallpaper-123860-5641.jpg Theatrical releases of poster
Directed by	Abbas–Mustan
Produced by	Ramesh S. Taurani Kumar S. Taurani
Written by	Shiraz Ahmed Kiran Kotrial (Story, Screenplay, Dialogues) Jitendra Parmar Anurag Prapanna (Dialogues)
Starring	Anil Kapoor Saif Ali Khan Akshaye Khanna Bipasha Basu Katrina Kaif Sameera Reddy
Narrated by	Anil Kapoor
Music by	Songs: Pritam Background Score: Salim-Sulaiman
Cinematography	Ravi Yadav
Edited by	Hussain A. Burmawala
Production company	Tips Industries
Distributed by	Disney·UTV
Release date	21 March 2008 (2008-03-21)
Running time	155 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹46 crore
Box office	₹103.45 crore

Race is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and Written by Kiran Kotrial and Shiraz Ahmed.The Film was produced by the banner Tips Industries. It is the first installment of the Race film series and stars Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy lead roles. The story is loosely based on the 1998 Hollywood film Goodbye Lover and explores themes of sibling rivalry, betrayal and passion. The supporting cast of Race includes Dalip Tahil and Johnny Lever.

Race was filmed in Durban and Dubai. It premiered worldwide on 21 March 2008, receiving highly positive reviews from critics, with praise for its performances and music, although the screenplay received polarizing response. Race emerged a major box-office success, grossing a total of ₹103.45 crore worldwide on a budget of ₹46 crores, and was one of the year's highest-grossing Bollywood films. It was dubbed into Tamil as Panthayam and Telugu as Race Telugu, and went on to spawn two sequels—Race 2 in 2013 and Race 3 in 2018, though the latter was a reboot.

Plot

A voice-over by Inspector Robert D'Costa "RD" (Anil Kapoor) introduces the four main characters: Ranvir "Ronny" Singh (Saif Ali Khan) who is a successful business tycoon, who runs Stallion Group, a big horse racing company in Durban. He inherited the job from his father. He has a younger brother, Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) who mooches off of Ronny and is an alcoholic. Ronny is dating an upcoming model Sonia (Bipasha Basu), while his personal assistant Sophia (Katrina Kaif) appears to be secretly in love with him. Ronny is also involved in an intense competition with a rival horse-owner Kabir Ahuja (Dalip Tahil). The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident which Ronny narrowly survives. When Ronny loses money in a race because his jockey had been bribed by Kabir, Ronny plants a bomb in the jockey's car and kills him, showing Ronny to be a ruthless businessman. Later, Ronny also destroys Kabir when the latter offers him money to buy his business, which is in debt.

In a drunken stupor, Rajiv confesses to Ronny that he likes Sonia and that he would quit drinking if he could spend his life with a woman like her. Ronny immediately stops dating Sonia so that Rajiv can have her. Rajiv and Sonia begin dating and appear happy until, in a twist, Rajiv reveals he knows of Sonia's shady past and has a plan to use Sonia to his advantage. Rajiv reveals that his father had secured identical life-insurance policies for huge sums on each of the sons. He explains that he wants to kill Ronny in what would appear to be an accident and inherit $100 million in insurance payments and wants Sonia to play along. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million. They pretend to get married, and Rajiv ignores Sonia in this fake-marriage while continuing to play an alcoholic. As per his instructions, Sonia seduces Ronny, who confesses he loved her all along. Rajiv reveals the rest of his plan: to threaten to commit suicide in response to Sonia and Ronny's affair by leaping off a tall building, have Ronny appear on the terrace, and get Sonia to push Ronny off. However, it turns out Ronny was aware of the plan all along as Sonia had been keeping him updated, having always been in league with him. They then plan to apparently kill Rajiv, using his own plan against him.

Things go according to plan, but Sonia double-crosses Ronny and pushes him off, saying she loved him, but the money was more important. RD appears at this point to investigate the death, accompanied by his idiotic assistant Mini (Sameera Reddy). Upon his arrival, he immediately suspects foul play in the death. During his investigation, Ronny's assistant Sophia reveals that she was married to Ronny and produces a legitimate marriage certificate. Sonia is shocked that their plan has been thwarted as Sophia is now the heir to the insurance money. In another twist, Sophia was in on the plan all along and is Rajiv's secret collaborator. Rajiv plans to bump off Sonia after he and Sophia get the insurance money. However, RD figures out during his investigation that Sophia and Rajiv had faked her marriage with Ranvir and that he had been tricked into signing the marriage certificate. RD confronts Rajiv about this and agrees to remain silent about it in exchange for $25 million.

Rajiv hires the same hitman who had attempted to murder Ronny at the beginning to kill Sonia, revealing that he had been behind the first murder attempt, too. Sonia is lured into following Rajiv and Sophia to a parking lot, where the hitman attacks her. Just as the hitman is about to kill her, Ronny reappears and rescues her, killing the hitman in the process.

Later, when Rajiv and Sophia plan to celebrate, Ronny appears and confronts them. He explains that he had overheard Rajiv discussing the failed murder attempt with the hitman and had been playing along the whole time so he could get the insurance money from his own fake-death along with the insurance money from killing Rajiv. Discovering that Rajiv's hatred towards him as a half brother was his main reason for doing this, he allows Rajiv one last chance to win by agreeing to a car race (in the same way as they use to compete each other in their childhood by a cycle race). Ranvir shows up to the race in a sports car, whilst Rajiv doesn't. When Rajiv protests, he switches cars with Ranvir. This turns out to be a trick as Rajiv had tampered with the brakes on his own car. Ronny, in turn, lies to Rajiv, claiming he had planted a bomb in his car, similar to the one that killed the jockey, and that it would be detonated if Rajiv ever slowed down below 100 kmph. This causes Rajiv to crash into a petroleum tank, killing him and Sophia, who had been riding with him. Ronny narrowly escapes death himself. Ronny then says that there was no bomb in the car and that Rajiv had "killed himself".

In the end, Ronny collects the insurance money from Rajiv and Sophia's death, along with the money from his own fake-death. Upon fleeing the city, he is stopped by RD, who had been in on the plan, too, and had helped Ronny fake his death and get the insurance money. RD takes his $25 million, only to find a bomb in the bag along with the money. The bomb does not detonate, and Ronny reveals that it was a mere precaution to see if RD would try to betray him and take all the money. Ranvir rewards RD for his relative honesty by allowing him to live, and the two drive off in opposite directions while RD hopes to never meet him again.

Cast

• Anil Kapoor as Inspector Robert D'Costa, a.k.a. RD, Ranvir's friend
• Saif Ali Khan as Ranvir "Ronny" Singh, Rajiv's foster elder brother
• Akshaye Khanna as Rajiv Singh, Ranvir's foster younger brother
• Bipasha Basu as Sonia Singh, supermodel and Ranvir's love interest
• Katrina Kaif as Sophia Singh, Ranveer's secretary
• Sameera Reddy as Mini, RD's assistant
• Dalip Tahil as Kabir Ahuja, Ranvir's rival
• Johnny Lever as Max, marriage bureau chief (Cameo appearance)
• Kiku Sharda as Sam, Ranvir's assistant
• Gurpreet Ghuggi as police officer (Cameo appearance)

Casting

Originally it was Akshay Kumar who was given the lead role of Ranvir Singh, and Saif Ali Khan was given the negative role of Rajiv Singh. However, both of them rejected the roles.

Later, Saif got the lead role of Ranvir Singh, and Akshaye Khanna was given the negative role of Rajiv Singh.

Soundtrack

Race
Soundtrack album by Pritam
Released	1 March 2008 (2008-03-01)
Recorded	2008
Genre	Feature Film Soundtrack
Length	1:08:59
Language	Hindi
Label	Tips Music
Director	Abbas-Mustan
Producer	Pritam
Pritam chronology
Mukhbiir (2008) Race (2008) Jannat (2008)

The soundtrack of Race was released by Tips Music on 1 March 2008. Composed by Pritam with lyrics by Sameer, Race had 7 original songs, 9 remixes and an instrumental theme. The song "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" sung by Monali Thakur and Neeraj Shridhar was recorded after the release of the soundtrack, replacing the original song "Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo" in the film. Tips then re-distributed the soundtrack, adding "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" after the release of the film. All the remix versions were produced by DJ Suketu feat. Aks.

Track listing

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Zara Zara Touch Me"	Monali Thakur, Earl Edgar, Pritam	04:25
2.	"Pehli Nazar Mein"	Atif Aslam, Clinton Cerejo	05:10
3.	"Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)"	Pritam, Neeraj Shridhar, Monali Thakur	04:37
4.	"Race Saanson Ki"	Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar	04:44
5.	"Race Is on My Mind"	Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar	04:54
6.	"Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo"	Sunidhi Chauhan, Apache Indian, Taz	04:36
7.	"Dekho Nashe Mein"	Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan	04:17
8.	"Race Theme"	Instrumental	02:12
9.	"Pehli Nazar Mein" (Club Mix)	Atif Aslam	04:08
10.	"Pehli Nazar Mein" (Lounge Mix)	Atif Aslam	04:22
11.	"Zara Zara Touch Me" (Asain RnB Mix)	Monali Thakur, Earl Edgar, Pritam	03:55
12.	"Zara Zara Touch Me" (Remix)	Monali Thakur, Earl Edgar, Pritam	04:46
13.	"Dekho Nashe Mein" (Asain RnB Mix)	Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan	04:19
14.	"Dekho Nashe Mein" (Latin Fiesta Mix)	Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan	04:05
15.	"Mujh Pe To Jadoo" (Remix)	Sunidhi Chauhan, Apache Indian, Taz	04:20
16.	"Race Is on My Mind" (Remix)	Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar	04:26
17.	"Race Saanson Ki" (Remix)	Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar	04:27
Total length:			1:08:59

Reception

Race got favourable reviews with the song "Pehli Nazar Mein" sung by Atif Aslam as the biggest hit of the album along with "Zara Zara Touch Me" sung by Monali Thakur. Aakash Gandhi Noted "Pritam gives us a fairly solid soundtrack, reminiscent of a lot of his 2006 works. However, he doesn't quite live up to the expectations he'd set for himself last year. Although, one thing is for sure – he always manages to come up with at least one really great composition in each of his outings. This time it's Pehli Nazar Mein." while Atta Khan wrote, "the soundtrack of Race turns out to be a typical Pritam offering for a bigger profile movie; a few solid tracks that will make the intended impact on screen (especially for the promos) and could well elevate sales for the soundtrack as well. But in all other respects, it is unspectacular, unoriginal, and uninspiring, and apart from 'Pehli Nazar Mein' and a few nice remixes by DJ Suketu, it provides little scope for repeated listening". According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 1,700,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fifth highest-selling.

Plagiarism allegations

According to a Network 18 report, "Pehli Nazar Mein" and "Zara Zara Touch Me" were directly copied from the Korean song "Sa Rang Haeo" of korean series Sassy Girl and Leehom Wang's "Deep Within a Bamboo Grove". Sony BMG Taiwan has issued a legal letter to Tips Industries claiming damages for the song "Zara Zara Touch Me".

Release

Critical reception

Raja Sen gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, saying it was a "carnival of twists". However, Taran Adarsh gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Race is a superb entertainer all the way", and that it "has not just style, but a lot of substance too".

Distribution Rights

The distribution rights of the film were sold to Disney India.

Sattelite Rights

The sattelite rights of the movie were sold to Star India.

Online Streaming

The streaming rights of the movie were sold to Netflix.

Box office

Race went on to become the fourth biggest Bollywood film of 2008 behind Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ghajini, Hello, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Jannat, Kismat Konnection, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Singh Is Kinng, Tashan and Yuvvraaj in terms of gross. The film opened with a total of ₹356 million (US$4.1 million) in India, ₹900,000 in the United Kingdom and ₹840,000 in the United States. It netted ₹620 million in India, before collecting $5 million from overseas. Race had grossed ₹158 million (US$1.8 million) in its opening weekend, before collecting a worldwide gross of ₹1.03 billion.

Awards and Nominations

Award	Category	Recipients and Nomninees	Results
Producers Guild Film Awards	Best Actress	Bipasha Basu	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actress	Katrina Kaif
	Best Music Director	Pritam
International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Villain	Akshaye Khanna	Won
	Best Sound Recording	Leslie Fernandes
	Best Movie	Ramesh S. Taurani, Kumar S. Taurani, Tips Films Pvt. Ltd.	Nominated
	Best Actress	Bipasha Basu
	Best Comedian	Anil Kapoor
	Best Music Director	Pritam
	Best Lyricist	Sameer Anjaan for "Pehli Nazar Mein"
	Best Male Playback Singer	Atif Aslam for "Pehli Nazar Mein"
	Best Female Playback Singer	Monali Thakur for "Zara Zara Touch Me"
Filmfare Awards	Best Music Director	Pritam	Nominated
Screen Awards	Best Villain	Akshaye Khanna	Won

Sequel

Main article: Race 2

The original production team had announced plans to make a sequel called Race 2. Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor returned to reprise their roles while John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel were new additions to the cast. Bipasha Basu was the only other returning member and appeared in a cameo role as Sonia. The filming for Race 2 started on 5 October 2011. It was released on 25 January 2013, and was another success, grossing over ₹1 billion (US$11 million) domestically.

External links

• Official website
• Race on IMDb
• Race at Box Office Mojo