Chulbul Pandey is a young boy who lives with his younger half-brother Makkhanchand "Makkhi" Pandey, stepfather Prajapati Pandey and mother Naina Devi in Laalgunj, Uttar Pradesh. Chulbul has a troubled relationship with Prajapati and Makkhi. After 21 years, Chulbul becomes a cop and calls himself as *Robin Hood* Pandey, where he still lives with his family. Makkhi is in love with Nirmala, whose father Masterji opposes their relationship. Chulbul falls in love with a girl named Rajjo, whom he meets during a police chase culminating in an encounter.
A corrupt political leader named Chedi Singh meets Chulbul and both quickly become enemies. Makkhi asks Prajapati to arrange his marriage with Nirmala, but Prajapati refuses because he needs money to repay the loans he took to make his factory and believes that he can acquire money through his son marrying a rich girl. In desperate need of money, Makkhi steals some cash from Chulbul's cupboard and gives the stolen cash to Masterji, hoping that he will permit Makkhi to marry Nirmala. Meanwhile, Chulbul proposes marriage to Rajjo, who rejects as she has to take care of her drunkard father Hariya. Chulbul arrives home to find his mother Naini Devi dead, where he goes to Prajapati to make peace as he is the only family left. However, Prajapati rejects and despises him as an outcast. Makkhi invites Chulbul to his marriage with Nirmala, where Chulbul convinces Hariya to marry Rajjo. Hariya commits suicide as he knows that Rajjo will not marry anyone while he is alive. Chulbul takes Rajjo to Makkhi's exuberant wedding. Realising that Makkhi has stolen his money to finance the wedding, Chulbul marries Rajjo in an impromptu ceremony. Masterji feels disgraced and cancels Makkhi's wedding with Nirmala. Still feeling annoyed that Chulbul jeopardised his wedding, Makkhi beats up one of the workers in his factory due to a small mishap. The worker goes to the police station with his mother to file a complaint. Rather than simply ask Makkhi to apologise to the worker, Chulbul brutally beats up Makkhi in public to disgrace him. Chedi takes advantage of the situation and takes Makkhi along with Prajapati to the police station. Not wishing to aggravate the matter any further, Prajapati resolves the situation by accepting an apology. Chulbul meets a political leader named Dayal Sahu aka Dayal Babu, who also dislikes Chedi. With his help, Chulbul adulterates Chedi's breweries and wrongly frames him for it. Enraged, Chedi burns Makkhi's factory where Prajapati suffers from a heart attack and is hospitalised. Makkhi goes to Chedi for help, where Chedi agrees to finance Prajapati's treatment if he delivers a crate of mangoes to Dayal Babu's house. Unbeknownst to Makkhi, Chedi has placed a bomb inside the crate, which explodes after he leaves, killing Dayal Babu. Chedi gives Makkhi a task to kill Chulbul. Makkhi accepts, but ends up confessing to Chulbul that Chedi made him plant the bomb unknowingly. Chulbul forgives him and reconciles with him. During a final confrontation between Chulbul and Chedi, Makkhi reveals to Chulbul that it was Chedi, who killed Naini. Chulbul finally kills Chedi and arranges Makkhi's marriage with Nirmala. Salman Khan grew a moustache after consulting with his brother and prepared his hair to suit his role.[8] For the former, he had to try out nearly fifty styles in a span of four months before commencement of the filming. Photo-shoots were held to finalise his look.[9] Abhinav Kashyap, in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, revealed that initially he had considered a few others for the role of Chulbul Pandey, but eventually changed his mind and approached Salman.[10][11] Kashyap had seen Arbaaz in *Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na*, doing a cameo and approached him to be a part of the project. After reading it, he had instantly accepted to produce and star in it.[10] Sonu Sood was selected for playing the lead antagonist. He revealed that his character was that of a "youth leader with grey shades."[12] Mahesh Manjrekar was later approached to play the father of Sinha's character, although he had plans to quit acting.[13] In April 2009, Sonakshi Sinha signed for her debut role.[14] Salman had seen her at a function engaging in dancing and offered her the role.[11] Speaking about it, she said that she had lost a weight of 30 kg over two years to prepare for her character of a village girl by "a combination of proper diet and vigorous exercise". She added that she had been "observing people and trying to pick up nuances" as a step of further preparation.[15] Malaika Arora, who had performed a few item numbers in her career, most notably in *Dil Se..*, was confirmed to do the same in the film. This was the first of its kind in her home production.[16] *Dabangg*'s shooting took place primarily in Wai and the United Arab Emirates.[11] The shooting commenced in September 2009.[17] Production designer Wasiq Khan drew over 100 sketches detailing out every set in the film.[18] The cinematography was performed by Mahesh Limaye. The first schedule began in the town of Wai and continued for 45 days,[9] during which Sonu Sood, the main antagonist fractured his nose.[19] A schedule, primarily involving a song shoot, was captured in the Khalid Bin Al Waheed station in Dubai, making *Dabangg* the first film to be shot there.[20] Some scenes were also filmed at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi.[20] The film, involving around five action sequences, was choreographed by S. Vijayan, who previously served as the stunt director of *Wanted*, and shot over 60 days. Later, special effects were incorporated into those scenes.[21] The songs were choreographed by Raju Khan and Shabina Khan,[7][22] while Farah Khan choreographed the item number, "Munni Badnaam Hui".[16] The shooting was completed in early June 2010, and the film went into post-production.[23] A party was held to commemorate the completion of the shooting and the success of the theatrical promo. It was attended by the main cast and crew.[24] *Dabangg* was described as one of the most anticipated films of the year by *The Indian Express*.[29] The film's theatrical trailer, running for about two and a half minutes, was released on 23 July 2010, alongside Priyadarshan's *Khatta Meetha*.[24][30] Khan promoted the film on the reality show *Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega*, *India's Got Talent* and *Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Singing Superstar*.[31][32][33] An event for the film was held at DLF Promenade in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi with the main cast in attendance,[34] an exclusive merchandise for the film was launched.[35] Another set of promotions were held at Nagpur and Hyderabad.[36] It was reported to have broken pre-release records for hype by *Cinematix*, a filming awareness product originated by Ormax Media.[37][38] "For anybody who wants to know what is the on-screen definition of Bollywood, *Dabangg* is truly text book fare. It's loud, crazy, zany, exaggerated, larger-than-life, almost nonsensical, totally make-believe, comic book like, complete kitsch, generously peppered with the mandatory *desi tadka* (garnishing) of songs and dances that keep popping out of nowhere and is literally oozing with star charisma." The film generally received positive reviews from critics, most of whom praised the performances of Salman Khan and Sonu Sood, music, humour and action sequences. In a 4-star review for Koimoi, Komal Nahta ensured that the film would be a commercial success and said "*Dabangg* may be a routine subject but its other plus points will ensure that it proves a runaway hit".[49] Kaveree Bamzai of *India Today* gave the film four stars while labelling it as "one Zandu Balm of a movie."[50] Film critic Aniruddha Guha of *Daily News and Analysis* called the film "slightly mad, and terribly entertaining."[51] Mathures Paul of *The Statesman* gave the film 3.5 stars and commented, " *Dabangg* aligns itself with viewers frustrated by the nonexistence of uncomplicated heroism on screen."[52] In a 3-star review for Rediff.com, Abhishek Mande stated "*Dabangg* is not a movie for non-Salman fans. But for those who worship him it's a film you simply cannot afford to miss."[53] Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave 3 stars and stated that the film is watchable for the "sheer pleasure of watching Salman Khan in top form".[54] Sukanya Venkataraghavan of *Filmfare* also rated 3-stars, and praised Khan's performance.[55] *Dabangg* opened to a positive response in the overseas markets as well. The film's final overseas collections were US$6.10 million.[74][75] It grossed a total of US$4.20 million in the international markets at the end of its second weekend.[76] Before release, critic and writer Shobhaa De called for a boycott of *Dabangg*, due to Salman's comments on the 2008 Mumbai attacks. She criticised it as "arrogance, ignorance and plain stupidity." This sparked off a fight with the producers via Twitter, and continued after her negative review of the film.[82] Anurag Kashyap, brother of Abhinav Kashyap, tweeted "Salman khan thinks he made my brother's life.. Hope he can do the same for his brother Arbaaz with *Dabangg 2*." This was taken as "slamming" Salman and resulted in Arbaaz retorting back by referring to the comment as "attitude" instead of "gratitude". However, Anurag later apologised for his remarks, which Arbaaz accepted.[83] *Dabangg* received accolades in major film award functions in India. Among them, it won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.[84] It was given six awards at the 56th Filmfare Awards, including one for Best Film,[85] seven Screen Awards,[86] nine Zee Cine Awards,[87] and ten IIFA Awards.[88] *Dabangg*'s success attributed to the extensive promotional campaigns and the commercial factors present in the film.[38] The stock prices of the film's co-producers Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision at Bombay Stock Exchange saw an increase with the company gaining about 40% of its prices from 1 September 2010.[38] About the promotional tactics of the film, Dhilin Mehta said that "We promoted the character Chulbul Pandey instead of brand Salman Khan. Today, the character has become a national rave in the league of Gabbar Singh from *Sholay* (1975) and Mogambo from *Mr. India* (1987)".[38] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nikola-discuss" group. 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