Players

Directed by	Abbas-Mustan
Produced by	Pappu Vaswani Mohammed Burmawala Abbas-Mustan Viacom 18
Based on	The Italian Job by Troy Kennedy Martin
Starring	Abhishek Bachchan Bipasha Basu Sonam Kapoor Neil Nitin Mukesh Bobby Deol Sikandar Kher Omi Vaidya
Music	Pritam
Production company	Burmawala Partners
Distributed by	Viacom 18
Release dates	6 January 2012 (London and worldwide)
Running time	163 minutes
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹45 crore (US $6.7 million)
Box office	₹16 crore (US $2.4 million)

Players is a 2012 Indian action heist film directed by duo Abbas and Mustan Burmawalla and jointly produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Burmawala Partners. The film features an ensemble cast of Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Bobby Deol, Sikandar Kher and Omi Vaidya in the lead roles, while Aftab Shivdasani appears in a cameo. The theatrical trailer premiered on 3 November 2011, and the film was released on 6 January 2012. It is an official remake of the 2003 Hollywood blockbuster, The Italian Job, which itself is a remake of the 1969 British caper film, of the same name. Players employs the same plot as the 2003 version, while making the characters and incidents completely different.

The 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 ₹100 billion (US$1.5 billion) from a moving train. During the robbery they are double crossed by members of their own team.

Players 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 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. However, upon release the film received mixed reviews from critics, with wide criticism drawn towards its length and pace and 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! (2010) and Dulha Mil Gaya (2010).

Cast

Abhishek Bachchan as Charlie Mascrenhas	Bobby Deol as Ronnie Garewal
Bipasha Basu as Riya Thapar	Sonam Kapoor as Naina Braganza
Neil Nitin Mukesh as Spider	Sikandar Kher as Bilal Basheer
Omi Vaidya as Sunny Mehra	Johny Lever as MC/ Mangal Chopra and BC/ Budh Chopra
John McEnroe as John McEnroe	Vinod Khanna as Victor Braganza
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	…

Music

1. Jis Jagah Pe Khatam (Players Theme)
   Neeraj Shridhar, Siddharth Basrur, Mauli Dave
   4:12
   
2. Jhoom Jhoom Ta Ja
   Ritu Pathak
   5:02
   
3. Ho Gayi Tun
   Yashita Yashpal, Bob
   3:47
   
4. Buddhi Do Bhagwaan
   Shruti Pathak, Abhishek Bachchan
   4:42
   
5. Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai
   Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal
   4:38
   
6. Jhoom Jhoom Ta Hoon Main
   Siddharth Basrur
   4:49
   
7. Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai (Reprise)
   Nikhil D'Souza, Priyani Vani
   5:17
   
8. Jhoom Jhoom Ta Hoon Main (Film Version)
   Arijit Singh
   5:09
   
9. Jis Jagah Pe Khatam (Remix)
   Neeraj Shridhar, Siddharth Basrur, Mauli Dave
   3:30
   
10. Dil Yeh Bekaraar Kyun Hai (Remix)
    Mohit Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal
    5:17