Waqt: The Race Against Time

About the film

Waqt: The Race Against Time or simply known as Waqt (Hindi pronunciation: [ʋəqt]; transl. Time) is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. Based on a Gujarati play by Aatish Kapadia, the film stars an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Shetty Shah, Rajpal Yadav and Boman Irani. It follows the journey of Ishwar Chandra Thakur (Bachchan), an old rich businessman who unexpectedly turns very strict to his spoiled son Aditya Thakur (Kumar) to teach him life lessons before it is too late.

Shah wanted to make a film about a grounded father-son relationship differing from standard Bollywood father-son stories. Impressed after watching Kapadia's play, Shah bought the rights for a film adaptation. Principal photography was done on 14 sets at Filmistan Studio in Mumbai and a song was filmed in Leh, Ladakh. The music was composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics were written by Sameer, with the exception of one song written by Kapadia.

Budgeted at ₹110 million, Waqt was released theatrically on 22 April 2005. It became a box office success, grossing over ₹424.8 million, thus ranking as the 7th highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2005. Waqt was nominated at Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actress (Shefali Shah) and Best Comedian (Yadav). In addition, Shefali Shah won the Stardust Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Cast and crew

The film features Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Shetty Shah, Rajpal Yadav among others in its principal cast.

Key details