Ek Villain Returns

About the film

Ek Villain Returns (transl. A Villain Returns) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language psychological action thriller film directed by Mohit Suri and produced by T-Series and Balaji Motion Pictures. The film, a sequel to the 2014 film Ek Villain, stars John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria. The soundtrack was composed by Ankit Tiwari, Tanishk Bagchi and Kaushik-Guddu, while the musical score was composed by Raju Singh. The cinematography and editing were handled by Vikas Sivaraman and Devendera Murdeshwar respectively. The film follows a singer's murder that leads to a twisted investigation involving a wronged lover, a schizophrenic killer, and buried secrets resurfacing.

Ek Villain Returns was released theatrically on 29 July 2022 to mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb.

Plot

A masked intruder barges into an apartment complex, where he attacks and kills a singer named Aarvi Malhotra. The cops, headed by ex-CBI officer and DCP Aditya Rathore, deduce that the attack was orchestrated by Gautam Mehra, who is the son of businessman Divesh Mehra, but his teammate, ACP V.K. Ganesan, a criminal psychology expert who has previously studied Aditya's last big case involving psychopath Rakesh Mahadkar, refuses to believe the matter is this simple, as the story goes into a flashback with an introduction to Gautam.

Past: Gautam is a rich spoilt brat, who is berated by Divesh for having created a commotion at his ex-girlfriend Siya's wedding. The commotion video has been made into a rap song by singer Aarvi. Gautam is ousted from the business and his house. Pretending to be in love with her, Gautam helps Aarvi scare away her rival Q/Kiran. Aarvi falls for Gautam and reveals that her biological father Balkrishnan Shastri, a popular singer, had an extramarital affair with her mother, but never accepted either of them. Her main goal is to make her father accept her as his daughter by becoming a famous singer and later reject him. Gautam leaks Aarvi's childhood photos, implying that he was out to get even with her for humiliating him. Shastri publicly rejects his daughter, where Aarvi gets heartbroken. Three months later, Gautam gets attacked by Siya's husband Aditya and Aarvi takes care of him, where he realizes his love for her. Gautam pleads with her to give him a second chance, but Aarvi leaves him with a heavy heart.

Present: Gautam gets arrested, but manages to escape from the cops. Ganesan surmises that Gautam hasn't killed Aarvi. The cops interrogate Bhairav Purohit, whom Aarvi had called on the day she was murdered, but he denies committing the crime and there is no evidence either. Ganesan determines a pattern that the killer only targets young girls with one-sided lovers after discovering that 18 girls have been murdered with a similar modus operandi in the past 6 months. The ensuing circumstances motivate Ganesan to conclude that Gautam is not the serial killer, where it is later revealed that the serial killer is actually Bhairav; Gautam fights him but is unable to see his face, which allows Bhairav to escape.

Production

Aditya Roy Kapur was originally signed for the role portrayed by Arjun Kapoor, but later backed out due to creative differences with director Mohit Suri. Then, Kartik Aaryan was approached but he could not accept the offer due to date clashes with his Dhamaka.

Principal photography began on 1 March 2021. Abraham finished shooting in October 2021. The entire film was wrapped up on 24 March 2022.

Soundtrack

The songs are composed by Ankit Tiwari, Tanishk Bagchi, and Kaushik-Guddu. The lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir, Kunaal Vermaa, Tanishk Bagchi and Prince Dubey. The film score is composed by Raju Singh.

The first song "Galliyan Returns" was recreated from the track Galliyan for the 2014 film Ek Villain which was sung by Ankit Tiwari and written by Manoj Muntashir. The second single named "Dil" was released on 8 July 2022. The third single titled "Shaamat" was released on 16 July 2022 with Tara Sutaria making her singing debut. The fourth single titled "Naa Tere Bin" was released on 22 July 2022.

Reception

Ek Villain Returns earned ₹7.05 crores at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected ₹7.47 crore. On the third day, the film collected ₹9.02 crore, taking a total domestic weekend collection to ₹23.54 crore.

As of 18 August 2022, the film grossed ₹49.63 crore (US$5.2 million) in India and ₹19.01 crore (US$2.0 million) overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of ₹68.64 crore (US$7.2 million) .

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 0% of 6 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 1.7/10.

Release

The film was released in theatres worldwide on 29 July 2022.

The digital streaming rights of the film was sold to Netflix. The film started streaming digitally on Netflix from 9 September 2022.

Key details