Boss (2013 Hindi film)

Boss
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony D'Souza[1]
Written by	Farhad-Sajid
Based on	Pokkiri Raja by Vysakh
Produced by	Ashwin Varde Akshay Kumar
Starring	Akshay Kumar Mithun Chakraborty Ronit Roy Shiv Panditt Aditi Rao Hydari Johnny Lever Danny Denzongpa
Narrated by	Amitabh Bachchan
Cinematography	Laxman Utekar
Edited by	Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Music by	Score: Sandeep Shirodkar Songs: Meet Bros Anjjan Chirantan Bhatt Yo Yo Honey Singh P. A. Deepak
Production companies	Cape of Good Films Ashwin Varde Production
Distributed by	Viacom18 Motion Pictures
Release date	16 October 2013 (2013-10-16)
Running time	143 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹70 crore[3]
Box office	₹102.82 crore[3]

Boss is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Anthony D'Souza and written by Farhad-Sajid. It was produced by Cape of Good Films and Ashwin Varde Productions and features Akshay Kumar in the lead role, along with Mithun Chakraborty, Shiv Panditt, Ronit Roy and Aditi Rao Hydari. It is a remake of the Malayalam film Pokkiri Raja.^[4][5][6][7] The film was released worldwide on 16 October 2013.

The film starts with school teacher Satyakant Acharya Shastri, who has two children: Surya and Shiv. After Surya picks up brawls with another child multiple times and eventually kills him, Satyakant kicks him out and disowns him. Years later, Shiv grows up as the only son of his father. It is revealed that, after being disowned, Surya had saved the life of a transport businessman, Tauji, a.k.a. Big Boss, who had taken him in and raised him like a son for 15 years. Now, Surya has transformed himself into Boss, a suave, tough transport businessman who fights for justice.

Shiv falls in love with Ankita, an early college acquaintance who turns out to be the sister of the corrupt Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ayushman Thakur. Ayushman is in cahoots with the corrupt and power-hungry Home Minister, Shoorvar Pradhan. Pradhan suggests to Ayushman that he should get Ankita married to his son Vishal. Ayushman agrees and decides that Ankita will marry him whether she wants to or not. Upon finding out she is in love with Shiv, he has Shiv arrested and convicted for crimes he hasn't committed. It is also revealed that Surya didn't murder his classmate. Instead, Satyakant accidentally impaled him when he shoved them into a room so that they would learn to deal with each other.

Satyakant then tries to bail Shiv out and calmly explains to Ayushman. He is instead humiliated and thrown out of the police station. Without any choice, Satyakant turns to his other son for help, visits Boss, and gives him a photograph of Shiv, which convinces Surya that Shiv's life is in danger.

Boss meets Ayushman, and Vishal convinces him to free Shiv from all charges, telling him that Boss would kill Shiv when he is released from police custody. Boss, however, helps Shiv escape from custody. Pradhan sends his cops to capture Boss and take him to Ayushman's farmhouse. Boss escapes from the goons and reaches Ayushman's farm house. Pradhan calls Tauji there to complain about boss. In front of Tauji, Pradhan cancels his contract of killing Shiv with Tauji. After noticing Ankita, Surya asks her whether she loves Shiv — she replies positively. He takes the responsibility of getting Ankita married to Shiv in front of Tauji and her brother Ayushman. Satyakant and Shiv are attacked by a contract killer, Jabbar Bhai, and his goons, sent by Pradhan. Surya incapacitates Jabbar Bhai and his gang, saving his father and brother.

Twenty-five of the MLAs of Pradhan's political party are caught red-handed at a brothel with prostitutes by the media with the help of an unknown informer, later revealed to be Boss. Ayushman sets a trap against Shiv by setting up Ankita's friend Dimple and arresting Shiv in a fake rape case. Surya then tortures Vishal and sets a fake time bomb in his bum to get him to ask his father to get Shiv freed from police custody. Tauji informs Satyakant that Surya did not kill his schoolmate and that it was an accident. Satyakant rushes to meet Surya along with Tauji, but their car is hit by a truck sent by Ayushman. Tauji survives the accident; Satyakant is injured and hospitalized. Finally, Boss brutally defeats Ayushman, followed by a long fight. In the end, Satyakant with Shiv is shown opening his arms, calling Boss to hug, and they reunite.^[8]

• Akshay Kumar as Suryakant "Surya" Shastri / Boss, Satyakant’s elder son, Shiv’s elder brother
  • Rushiraj Pawar as Young Surya
• Mithun Chakraborty as Satyakant Shastri, Surya, and Shiv’s father
• Ronit Roy as DCP Ayushman Thakur, a corrupt police officer, Ankita’s elder brother
• Shiv Panditt as Shivakant "Shiv" Shastri, Satyakant’s younger son, Surya’s younger brother, Ankita’s love interest
  • Shivansh Kotia as Young Shiv
• Aditi Rao Hydari as Ankita Thakur, Ayushman’s sister, Shiv’s love interest
• Danny Denzongpa as Tauji / Big Boss, Surya’s mentor and father figure
• Johnny Lever as Zorawar Singh, Surya’s sidekick
• Sanjay Mishra as Trilok, Surya’s sidekick
• Parikshit Sahni as Raghunath
• Govind Namdeo as Minister Pradhan, a corrupt minister working with Ayushman
• Aakash Dabhade as Vishal Pradhan, The minister’s son
• Hunar Hali as Dimple
• Sreeleela as Kylie
• Mushtaq Khan as Constable Yadav
• Mukesh Tiwari as Thanedaar
• Shakti Kapoor as Nandu Plumber
• Amitabh Bachchan as Narrator
• Sonakshi Sinha in a special appearance in two songs.
• Prabhudeva in a special appearance in the song "Hum Na Tode"
• Yo Yo Honey Singh in a special appearance in the song "Party All Night"
• Sudesh Berry as Dushyanth
• Sudesh Lehri as Metal Man
• Pradeep Kabra as Lalan (Big Boss's driver)
• Sudhir Chaudhary as journalist

The director, Anthony D'Souza, and the script writers during the scripting stages were searching for a magnanimous character who could do justice to the role of Akshay Kumar – Boss in the film – who is portrayed as a gangster who is ever-ready to help the needy and a larger-than-life character.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} They chose veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan as the narrator who would introduce Boss.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

According to reports Amitabh Bachchan was sent the script in advance and journalist-turned-producer Ashwin Varde (for whom the film marks his first project as a producer) offered Bachchan the role personally over a phone call which he readily accepted. Bachchan, in spite of his hectic schedule, completed the dubbing session at the earliest, on 31 August 2013 at 8:30 pm IST in Juhu's BR Dubbing Theater in 30 minutes. To the crew's pleasant surprise he improvised his lines as well.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Akshay Kumar played a kind-hearted Haryanvi hero, known as 'Boss', and Mithun Chakraborty enacted the role of his father. Shiv Panditt portrayed Akshay Kumar's younger brother's role and Aditi Rao Hydari is paired opposite him. Danny Denzongpa played Boss's mentor and Ronit Roy played a ruthless police officer who is pitted against Kumar. Ronit Roy plays the role of a police officer up against the titular character, Boss, marking the first instance where he is the antagonist of a film. It is also the second consecutive instance where his role is that of a police officer, with Shootout at Wadala being the last one, in which he played Inspector Raja Ambat, based on real-life encounter specialist Raja Tambat.^{[14][15][16][17]} Roy and Akshay Kumar have an action sequence at the climax of the film, one its highlights, shot in temperatures exceeding 47 degrees Celsius in Thailand and involving high-octane stunts that both actors performed successfully.^[18] Ronit Roy and Akshay Kumar acted in a movie after 20 years, Sainik (1993).

The soundtrack featured nine tracks composed by Meet Bros Anjjan, Yo Yo Honey Singh, P. A. Deepak and Chirrantan Bhatt with lyrics written by Kumaar, Manoj Yadav and Sahil Kaushal. Sandeep Shirodkar composed the film score. The soundtrack CD containing the songs was released on 9 September 2013 to coincide with Akshay Kumar's birthday along with the auspicious festival of Ganesh Chaturthi.^[19] T-Series acquired the film's music rights.^[19]

The soundtrack preceded with the promotional video for the first and title track of the film "Boss Title Song" unveiled on YouTube on 30 August 2013 and subsequently for legal purchase as a soundtrack single on digital music platform, iTunes.^[20][21] The second song "Party All Night" being marketed as a 'party anthem' was made on a budget in excess of ₹60 million ($1.02 million), with the fee of Sonakshi Sinha being ₹6 million ($102,393), thus making it the more expensive Bollywood music video ever shot and was released on 6 September 2013.^{[22][23][24][25][26][27]}

The pre-look poster was released on 12 August 2013, and the first look was released on 13 August 2013.^[28] Akshay Kumar released the official teaser of Boss on 14 August 2013, and was premiered with Once Upon ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!^[29] Theatrical trailer was launched on 28 August 2013, coinciding with Krishna Janmashtami.^[30]

The star cast of Boss, Akshay Kumar, Aditi and Shiv promoted the film on the show Comedy Nights with Kapil. Akshay Kumar and comedian-actor Johnny Lever made appearance on the longest running comedy show Comedy Circus to promote their film.^[31][32] Akshay Kumar promoted the film on Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah.^[33] Akshay will promote the film by jumping from the tallest building in Mumbai.^[34]

Boss entered the Guinness World Records for the largest poster after beating Michael Jackson's This Is It.^[35] The poster, 58.87 metres wide and 54.94 metres high, was unveiled at Little Gransden Airfield, UK, on 3 October 2013. Macro Arts (UK) did the manufacturing; they had also made the previous Guinness record-holding poster.^[36]

An objectionable word in Honey Singh song "Party All Night" was muted, after a public interest litigation seeking a stay on release of Boss was filed in Delhi High Court.^[37][38][39]

Boss was released on 16 October 2013 in 2750 screens worldwide. It was given an U/A certificate by the Censor Board for its action sequences and bikini scenes.^[40] Boss was the first Indian movie released in Latin America.^[41] It was distributed in Panama, Peru, Denmark and France in addition to the 400 screens already announced across Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and Australia.^[42][43] It was also released in Pakistan on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.^[44]

On its first day, they had an 85–95% occupancy and collected ₹ 14.75 crore, but ticket sales dropped to ₹ 8 crore on the second day. The film collected ₹ 452.5 million at the Indian box office in its five-day-extended first weekend.^[45]

Collections further dropped next week, with Boss failing to cross the Rs 500 million mark in the domestic market in the nine-day-extended first week.^[46]

Boss had a disappointing second weekend at the domestic box office. The film after gathering income from its 2nd Friday, Saturday and Sunday, managed to make collections of 45 million only. Overall Boss was declared "Flop".^[47]

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying that the film was "designed to magnetize lovers of desi commercial cinema and woo the BO", especially for viewers who like "old-school masaledaar entertainers".^[48]

Mohar Basu of Koimoi gave it 2.5 out of 5 and stated that "Akshay Kumar single handedly saves the film from being a sore bore and that is reason enough why Boss deserves a definite shot".^[49]

Times of India stated that the film is average.^[50]

Mohammad Kamran Jawaid of Dawn gave a positive review, calling it "an idiosyncratic masala fare" where "some of the (film's) in-your-face flagrancy works (and) some doesn't."^[51]

• Boss at IMDb 
• Boss at Bollywood Hungama
• Boss at Rotten Tomatoes