Son of Sardaar

There is a massive rivalry between the Sandhus and the Randhawas. In a massive fight between the 2 families, Jaswinder "Jassi" Singh Randhawa's (Ajay Devgn) father and Balwinder "Billu" Singh Sandhu's (Sanjay Dutt) uncle kill each other. That happened during Billu's wedding with Parmeet "Pammi" Kaur (Juhi Chawla). So Billu makes a vow. The vow is to not get married until he kills Randhawa's son, which is Jassi. Meanwhile Jassi's mom flees the village along with Jassi, later settling in London.

25 years later, Jassi is a grown up Sikh man who is a struggling immigrant in London. He is best friends with Pathan (Salman Khan). Jassi has to go to India because his father left him some land in Phagwara, Punjab. However, Jassi is informed about the rivalry but he does not worry about it as he thinks that the rivalry is now forgotten. In Phagwara, Billu still searches for Randhawa's son with the help of his two younger brothers. They are called Titu (Vindu Dara Singh) and Tony (Mukul Dev). Pammi yearns to complete her incomplete marriage. Jassi arrives at India and meets Sukhmeet "Sukh" Kaur Sandhu (Sonakshi Sinha) on a train ride from New Delhi to Phagwara. Sukh is the sister of Billu. She is coming back to Phagwara as she has completed her studies in Delhi. During the train ride, Jassi falls in love with her. At Phagwara, Tony gives Jassi a ride to a Gurdwara as the land behind the Gurdwara is Jassi's. Tony finds out that Jassi is Randhawa's son and tries to kill him. But Tony is unsuccessful. Jassi meets Billu in a temple as the villagers tell Jassi that Billu will tell him all about the land. Billu is accompanied by his family and Sukh. Sukh and Jassi meet and Billu invites Jassi to his house. Tony then tells Billu that Jassi is the person they were searching for these 25 years. Billu will kill Jassi as soon as he gets out of the Sandhu household. Jassi finds out that he is in the Sandhu household. Only Billu and his brothers know that he is Randhawa's son. There is a tradition in the Sandhu household. The tradition is that 'guests are akin to God and there will be no killing in the house'. So in order to stay in the house, Jassi acts out that he has broken his back. For treatment, he has to stay in the house and therefore he is safe. Billu becomes extremely angry.

Sukh has a friend called Bobby (Arjan Bajwa). He is a doctor and finds out that Jassi has not broken his back. He doesn't tell anyone besides Sukh. One day, Jassi informs the police that Billu and his brothers will kill him. So a policeman (Puneet Issar) escorts Jassi out of the house safely. Billu follows them. The policeman takes Jassi into an old building and Jassi finds out that the Policeman was with Billu. The policeman leaves Jassi with Billu and his group who are carrying swords. By fighting them, Jassi escapes. Due to him escaping, he eventually reaches the Sandhu household again.

After some days of Jassi staying in the house, it is Lohri. During the celebration, the engagement of Bobby and Sukh is announced. Bobby and Sukh go against this decision but they eventually agree. The engagement was going to happen the next day. Jassi finds out that Sukh loves him. On the next day, the engagement takes place. Pammi tells Sukh and Bobby that she planned this engagement because she wanted Jassi to escape as the engagement is taking place in the Gurdwara, nobody will be in the Sandhu household. Pammi tells Sukh that Jassi is Randhawa's son. Jassi meanwhile, decides to fight Billu's brothers so he can stop this rivalry. Sukh escapes from the engagement and goes to Jassi. She wants to elope with him but Jassi wishes to end this rivalry, no matter what. Jassi fights Billu. However, the Sandhus tell Billu that he should forget about this rivalry. So Billu forgives Jassi only on one condition. The condition is that he will marry Sukh. Jassi agrees and now the Randhawa-Sandhu rivalry is forgotten.

• Ajay Devgn as Jaswinder "Jassi" Singh Randhawa, Sukh's love interest
• Sanjay Dutt as Balwinder "Billu" Singh Sandhu, Sukh's brother
• Sonakshi Sinha as Sukhmeet "Sukh" Kaur Sandhu, Jassi's love interest
• Juhi Chawla as Parmeet "Pammi" Kaur
• Salman Khan as Pathan, Jassi's friend (Special Appearance)[10]
• Arjan Bajwa as Bobby
• Puneet Issar as Inspector Sardar[11]
• Mukul Dev as Tony Singh Sandhu
• Vindu Dara Singh as Titu Singh Sandhu
• Tanuja as Bebe
• Sanjay Mishra as club owner in London (special appearance)
• Mukesh Tiwari in a special appearance

Son of Sardaar is a remake of Telugu comedy thriller film Maryada Ramanna directed by S. S. Rajamouli starring Sunil and Saloni Aswani in lead roles. In an interview, director Ashwni Dhir replied that it was only the plot that was remade; the rest was changed.

Maryada Ramanna has also been remade in Kannada as Maryade Ramanna starring Komal Kumar and Nisha Shah, and in Bengali as Faande Poriya Boga Kaande Re starring Soham Chakraborty and Srabanti Chatterjee.[12][13] In fact, each and every antic in Son of Sardaar is prominently depicted in the Bengali remake.[14] The movie was also re-made in Tamil Vallavanukku Pullum Aayudham starring comedian Santhanam in a hero role with newcomer Ashna Zaveri as the heroine. The movie was also remade in Malayalam as Ivan Maryadaraman starring Malayalam actor Dileep in the hero role with Nikki Galrani as the heroine.

₹300 million (US$4.2 million) was spent on making Son of Sardar.[15][16] However, an all-inclusive price tag of ₹850 million (US$12 million) was also announced in the media.

The Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board raised disagreements due to some objection regarding certain scenes and dialogues. The producer and lead actor Ajay Devgn understood the objections and edited the scenes.[17] "The creativity of the film has not been affected in any way. Every film is rectified, sometimes it's made even better," said Devgn during a press conference. "The objectionable things were very small. The writer and director of the film is Punjabi and we took care of things. Even the guy who tied my turban was from Punjab", he added.

Son of Sardaar released in 2,000 screens in India and 350 screens overseas.[16][18][19][20] Son of Sardaar got 300 more screens in its second week.[21][22]

Two weeks before Diwali, Ajay Devgn FFilms sent an intimation notice to Yash Raj Films through their lawyer at the Competition Commission of India. The notice accused Yash Raj Films of monopolistic business practices and stated that they used "their dominant position in the Bollywood film market" to secure many high quality single-screens for their release Jab Tak Hai Jaan.[23]

Yash Raj Films responded by saying that they were shocked and questioned Devgn's motives. The studio dismissed Devgn's claim that high-quality single-screens were unavailable by pointing out that they had only booked 1,500 single-screens for Jab Tak Hai Jaan out of the 10,500 available in India. The studio added that Ajay could have changed the release of his film as Yash Chopra announced on 27 June 2011 Jab Tak Hai Jaan would come out on Diwali 2012. Ajay announced the date of Son of Sardaar on 29 May 2012 and finalised distribution deals on 4 October 2012. He had a year to avoid a simultaneous release. Lastly, Yash Raj Films stated it was unfair to say they were in a dominant position. The studio only released a handful of films in 2012 while the makers of Son of Sardaar, Viacom 18 and Eros International, released dozens the same year.[24]

After the statement made by Yash Raj Films, Ajay Devgn responded by saying he only managed to book 600 single-screens for Son of Sardaar and would take legal action if not allotted more. He denied having anything against Shahrukh Khan and said that distributors cannot be allowed to enter into an arrangement which adversely affects competition. Yash Raj Films entered into a tie-in arrangement with exhibitors that made it compulsory for them to show an untitled Yash Chopra film on Diwali and keep it in cinemas for at least two weeks thereafter. Devgn claimed that this violated provisions of the 2002 Indian Competition Act.[24][25] Senior film critic Vinod Mirani said that YRF's move of blocking single screens may not help much. "Single screens watchers will have more affinity towards an action film such as SOS. Moreover, JTHJ's length and the fact that music has still not picked up, will not go down well with the movie goers."[26] The Competition Commission dismissed the case against Yash Raj Films on 6 November 2012.[27] Ajay Devgn has appealed to Competition Appellate Tribunal after rejection of petition against Yash Raj Films.[28] The Competition Appellate tribunal bench headed by chairman Justice V. S. Sirpurkar refused Devgn's stay against Jab Tak Hai Jaan but stated that the case against Yash Raj Films will be reviewed again. Both films were released on 13 November 2012.[29][30]

The music of the film was composed by Himesh Reshammiya while the lyrics were penned by Sameer, Shabbir Ahmed, Irshad Kamil & Manoj Yadav. Only one song, "Yeh Jo Halki Halki Khumariya", composed by Sajid-Wajid was also included in the album.[54]

Soundtrack reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
IBNLive (IANS)
Abid (Glamsham)
Mohit Kapur (Koimoi)
Joginder Tuteja (Bollywood Hungama)

The album received mixed to positive reviews. Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated that "Son of Sardaar lives up to its promise of a high-on-energy soundtrack with not many dull moments in its 50-odd minutes duration. "[55] Koimoi gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said, "Overall this album is more than a decent affair where Punjabi 'tadka' makes it reasonably happening. While the tracks Son of Sardaar and Bichdann will certainly do well, Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein and Rani Tu Mein Raja also carry potential to make their presence felt."[56] IBNLive gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said, "The album is woven around the theme of the film and manages to justify it well, although the sound gets a bit monotonous at times."[57]

In May 2015, Ajay Devgn posted on Twitter: "Sorry yaar, duniya bekar bina Son of Sardaar!"[58] Devgn, shared a poster of the film 'Sons of Sardaar: The Battle of Saragari' in July 2016.[59] In August 2017, Devgn stated: "We are working on the script but it won’t happen for another two years because of the scale of the project."[60]

• Bollywood films of 2012

• Son of Sardaar at IMDb
• Son of Sardaar at Box Office Mojo