Ladies vs Ricky Bahl
2011 film by Maneesh Sharma From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Maneesh Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. The film stars Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra (in her debut), Dipannita Sharma, and Aditi Sharma. Loosely inspired by the 2006 American film John Tucker Must Die, the adapted screenplay was written by Devika Bhagat, with dialogues by Habib Faisal. The film follows a group of women who team up to exact revenge on Ricky Bahl, a smooth-talking con artist who had deceived each of them under different identities.
| Ladies vs Ricky Bahl | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Maneesh Sharma |
| Screenplay by | Devika Bhagat Habib Faisal |
| Dialogues by | Habib Faisal |
| Story by | Aditya Chopra |
| Produced by | Aditya Chopra |
| Starring | Ranveer Singh Anushka Sharma Parineeti Chopra Dipannita Sharma Aditi Sharma |
| Cinematography | Aseem Mishra Ravi K. Chandran |
| Edited by | Namrata Rao[1] |
| Music by | Salim–Sulaiman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Yash Raj Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 140 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹20 crore |
| Box office | ₹49.4 crore[2] |
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl was released on 9 December 2011 and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised its stylish presentation, humor, and the chemistry between Singh and Sharma, with high praise directed towards Parineeti Chopra's performance. The film also emerged as a commercial success at the box office, grossing ₹49.4 crore worldwide on a budget of ₹20 crore.
At the 57th Filmfare Awards, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl earned Parineeti Chopra two nominations—Best Supporting Actress and Best Female Debut, winning the latter. She went on to win both categories at the IIFA Awards and the Producers Guild Film Awards, and also received the Best Female Debut award at the Screen Awards, the Stardust Awards and the Zee Cine Awards.
Plot
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Dimple Chaddha, a spoiled and wealthy Delhi girl, falls for her fitness trainer, Sunny Singh, who charms her and pretends to be interested in marriage. He tells her about a disputed inheritance involving a property occupied by tenants. Dimple persuades her father to use his influence to evict the tenants, and they even lend Sunny ₹20 lakh to help him claim the property. However, it is later revealed that the inheritance was fabricated and the tenants were legal occupants. Sunny vanishes with the money, leaving Dimple heartbroken and embarrassed.
Meanwhile, in Mumbai, successful businesswoman Raina Parulekar purchases an expensive painting from Deven Shah, who claims to run an art gallery. Shortly after the transaction, Deven disappears with ₹60 lakh, and Raina learns the painting is fake. She publicly shares her story, which draws the attention of Dimple. They connect and are soon joined by Saira Rashid, a shy and trusting woman from Lucknow who was conned out of ₹10 lakh by a man named Iqbal Khan, whom she was romantically interested in.
The three women realize that Sunny, Deven, and Iqbal are the same man operating under different aliases. They nickname him “Bloody Kameena” (BK) and hatch a plan to con the conman. Raina, using her resources, finances the plan. They recruit Ishika Desai, a sharp-tongued and confident saleswoman from Mumbai, to pose as a wealthy NRI heiress and lure BK in.
Tracking him down to Goa, they discover he is now operating under the name Vikram Thapar, posing as the owner of a beachside water sports business. Ishika approaches him, pretending to be the daughter of a hotel-chain magnate looking to invest in a restaurant. Vikram quickly takes the bait and begins to court her, unaware of the setup.
To impress Ishika, Vikram offers to fund the restaurant’s launch. Meanwhile, the women feed him fake bills, cheap materials, and fake staff, slowly recouping the money he stole from them. As Vikram grows closer to Ishika, he genuinely starts falling for her. After a successful launch party, he and Ishika spend time together and share a kiss. The next morning, he discovers Ishika meeting with the other women and realizes he has been conned.
Determined to retaliate, Vikram manipulates the situation and sells Ishika a worthless property for the restaurant. The women, believing Ishika has betrayed them, confront her and ask her to leave. Later, they find Vikram waiting at their hotel. He confesses to his past cons and expresses remorse, claiming he now understands how it feels to be deceived. He offers to return all the stolen money and insists he wants to turn over a new leaf.
As the women prepare to leave, they notice Ishika is heartbroken over Ricky, and they decide to help reunite the couple. Ricky, now revealing his real name, proposes to Ishika and tells her he wants to learn how to live honestly, with her help.
Cast
- Ranveer Singh as Ricky Bahl (Sunny Singh in Delhi, Deven Shah, Manoj Suri in Mumbai, Iqbal Khan in Lucknow, Vikram Thapar, Diego Vaz, Abhay Salaskar in Goa)
- Anushka Sharma as Ishika Desai (Ishika Patel)
- Parineeti Chopra as Dimple Chaddha
- Dipannita Sharma as Raina Parulekar
- Aditi Sharma as Saira Rashid
- Shireesh Sharma as Mr. Suresh Chaddha, Dimple's father
- Avijit Dutt as Raina's boss
- Akshay Anand as Raina's colleague
- Sheena Bajaj in a cameo appearance as the nurse in the title track
- Shruti Sharma as Customer in Story:3 Lucknow
Reception
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Box office
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl opened to strong occupancy in multiplexes, with many locations recording 90–100% attendance on its first day, particularly in the Delhi and Punjab regions. While multiplex-dominated urban areas saw good to decent turnout, single-screen cinemas reported comparatively lower footfalls. The film collected approximately ₹198.5 million on its opening day.[3][4]
On its second day, collections improved significantly, reaching ₹445 million, and continued to rise on Sunday, earning ₹767.5 million, bringing the three-day weekend total to approximately ₹805 million.[5] The film held steady on Monday, collecting around ₹815 million nett in four days.[6]
By the end of its first week, the film grossed approximately ₹730 million nett, and continued to perform moderately well in the following weeks.[7][8] Its lifetime theatrical earnings were around ₹840 million, and it was declared a box office hit.[9]
Critical reception
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl was released in India on 9 December 2011 to mixed-to-positive reviews. Critics praised the film’s performances—particularly Parineeti Chopra, who made her acting debut—as well as its premise and styling, though many noted shortcomings in its screenplay and execution.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing: "Ladies vs Ricky Bahl is, at best, a decent fare, which appeals in parts. The film starts well, even ends well. It’s the in-between that’s plain ordinary. Ideally, the film merits a 2.5 star rating, but that extra 0.5 star is for Singh and Anushka, who steal your heart with truly striking performances."[10]
Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, stating: "There is no humour, no earthy flavour, no tingling chemistry between the lead pair. What does work in favour of the film are its performances and its non-hysterical tenor."[11]
NDTV gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "predictable" and noting a lack of strong chemistry between the leads, but still described it as enjoyable, particularly praising Singh’s performance.[12]
Rajeev Masand of IBN Live described the film as “watchable”, but remarked that it "could've been so much more fun."[13]
Zee News rated it 3 out of 5 stars, calling it “a good option to get entertained this weekend and reconnect with the Band Baaja Baaraat jodi for some laughter and foot-stomping again.”[14]
Awards and nominations
Soundtrack
| Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2010 | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Label | Sony Music India[21] | |||
| Producer | Salim–Sulaiman | |||
| Salim–Sulaiman chronology | ||||
| ||||
The film's music and soundtrack were composed by Salim–Sulaiman with lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.
The song "Jigar Da Tukda" won the most atrocious lyrics award at the Golden Kela Awards in 2012.[22]
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Aadat Se Majboor" | Benny Dayal, Ranveer Singh | 04:38 |
| 2. | "Thug Le" | Vishal Dadlani, Shweta Pandit | 03:39 |
| 3. | "Jigar Da Tukda" | Salim Merchant, Shraddha Pandit | 04:14 |
| 4. | "Jazba" | Shilpa Rao | 04:39 |
| 5. | "Aadat Se Majboor (Remix)" | Benny Dayal, Ranveer Singh | 04:34 |
| 6. | "Jazba (Remix)" | Anushka Manchanda | 04:02 |
| 7. | "Fatal Attraction" | Instrumental | 03:34 |
| Total length: | 28:00 | ||
Plagiarism allegations
Ladies vs Ricky Bahl faced plagiarism allegations from multiple sources. Tamil film director Selva accused the makers of lifting the core premise from his 2007 film Naan Avan Illai and its 2009 sequel, both of which revolve around a con artist who deceives several women by assuming different identities.[23] Separately, British author Jeffrey Archer alleged that the film borrowed elements from his 1976 novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, which also centers on a group of individuals conning a conman to recover their losses.[24]
See also
- John Tucker Must Die (2006)
- The Other Woman (2014)
References
External links
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