Race (film series)

Race (2008)

A voice-over by RD (Anil Kapoor) introduces the four main characters: Ranvir Singh "Ronny" (Saif Ali Khan) who runs a successful business he inherited from his father. His younger brother Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) who mooches off of Ronny and is an alcoholic. Ronny is dating an upcoming model Sonia (Bipasha Basu), while his personal assistant Sophia (Katrina Kaif) appears to be secretly in love with him. Ronny is also involved in an intense competition with a rival horse-owner Kabir (Dalip Tahil). The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident which Ronny narrowly survives. When Ronny loses money in a race because his jockey had been bribed by Kabir, Ronny plants a bomb in the jockey's car and kills him, showing Ronny to be a ruthless businessman. Later, Ronny also destroys Kabir when the latter offers him money to buy his business, which is in debt.

In a drunken stupor, Rajiv confesses to Ronny that he likes Sonia and that he would quit drinking if he could spend his life with a woman like her. Ronny immediately stops dating Sonia so that Rajiv can have her. Rajiv and Sonia begin dating and appear happy until, in a twist, Rajiv reveals he knows of Sonia's shady past and has a plan to use Sonia to his advantage. Rajiv reveals that his father had secured identical life-insurance policies for huge sums on each of the sons. He explains that he wants to kill Ronny in what would appear to be an accident and inherit $100 million in insurance payments and wants Sonia to play along. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million. They pretend to get married and Rajiv ignores Sonia in this fake-marriage while continuing to play an alcoholic. As per his instructions, Sonia seduces Ronny who confesses he loved her all along. Rajiv reveals the rest of his plan: to threaten to commit suicide in response to Sonia and Ronny's affair by leaping off a tall building, have Ronny appear on the terrace, and get Sonia to push Ronny off. However, it turns out Ronny was aware of the plan all along as Sonia had been keeping him updated, having always been in league with him. They then plan to apparently kill Rajiv, using his own plan against him.

Things go according to plan but Sonia double-crosses Ronny and pushes him off, saying she loved him, but the money was more important. Inspector RD appears at this point to investigate the death, accompanied by his idiotic assistant Mini (Sameera Reddy). Upon his arrival, he immediately suspects foul-play in the death. During his investigation, Ronny's assistant Sophia reveals that she was married to Ronny and produces a legitimate marriage certificate. Sonia is shocked that their plan has been thwarted as Sophia is now the heir to the insurance money. In another twist, Sophia was in on the plan all along and is Rajiv's secret collaborator. Rajiv plans to bump off Sonia after he and Sophia get the insurance money. However, RD figures out during his investigation that Sophia and Rajiv had faked her marriage with Ranvir and that he had been tricked into signing the marriage certificate. RD confronts Rajiv about this and agrees to remain silent about it in exchange for $25 million.

Rajiv hires the same hitman who had attempted to murder Ronny at the beginning to kill Sonia, revealing that he had been behind the first murder attempt, too. Sonia is lured into following Rajiv and Sophia to a parking lot where the hitman attacks her. Just as the hitman is about to kill her, Ronny reappears and rescues her, killing the hitman in the process.

Later, when Rajiv and Sophia plan to celebrate, Ronny appears and confronts them. He explains that he had overheard Rajiv discussing the failed murder attempt with the hitman and had been playing along the whole time so he could get the insurance money from his own fake-death along with the insurance money from killing Rajiv. Discovering that Rajiv's hatred towards him as a step brother was his main reason for doing this, he allows Rajiv one last chance to win by agreeing to a car race. Ranvir shows up to the race in a sports car, whilst Rajiv doesn't. When Rajiv protests, he switches cars with Ranvir. This turns out to be a trick as Rajiv had tampered with the brakes on his own car. Ronny, in turn, lies to Rajiv, claiming he had planted a bomb in his car, similar to the one that killed the jockey, and that it would be detonated if Rajiv ever slowed down below 100 mp/h. This causes Rajiv to crash into a petroleum tank, killing him and Sophia, who had been riding with him. Ronny narrowly escapes death himself. Ronny then says that there was no bomb in the car, and that Rajiv had "killed himself".

In the end, Ronny collects the insurance money from Rajiv and Sophia's death, along with the money from his own fake-death. Upon fleeing the city, he is stopped by Inspector RD, who had been in on the plan, too, and had helped Ronny fake his death and get the insurance money. Inspector RD takes his $25 million, only to find a bomb in the bag along with the money. The bomb does not detonate, and Ronny reveals that it was a mere precaution to see if RD would try to betray him and take all the money. Ranvir rewards RD for his relative honesty by allowing him to live, and the two drive off in opposite directions while RD hopes to never meet him again.

Race 2 (2013)

A robbery takes place and European printing plates are stolen. Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) sees this news on TV and decides to take advantage of this to get revenge for a past matter. Ranveer cons Vikram Thapar (Rajesh Khattar) by pretending to have stolen the Euro printing plates, and his plan is successful. He cons Vikram so badly that he is divested of the five casinos that he owns in Istanbul, Turkey.

This con is revealed to be a plan that Ranveer made a week earlier with ex-street fighter and current casino mogul Armaan Malik (John Abraham). Ranveer was introduced to Armaan by his friend Robert "RD" D'Costa (Anil Kapoor) and his dimwitted assistant Cherry (Ameesha Patel). After the con, Ranveer gives Armaan ownership of Thapar's five casinos in exchange for 10% of the money. With this deal, Ranveer and Armaan become friends. Ranveer also romances Armaan's half-sister Alina (Deepika Padukone), who is his 50% business partner in all his ventures and spent a night with him to start their partnership.

At a party hosted by Armaan and Alina, Ranveer meets Armaan's girlfriend Omisha (Jacqueline Fernandez) and sees a picture of his deceased wife Sonia (Bipasha Basu) in her wallet. He charms her through matches of archery and fencing where he cuts her dresses without her knowledge and walks away without watching her without dress. Ranveer then tells Armaan of a deal that will get them endless money. Armaan agrees to the plan.

Later, Ranveer reveals to RD that he is not planning to make Armaan rich, but he is actually planning to con Armaan so badly that he will lose all his money and be forced to become a beggar on the streets. This is part of Ranveer's plan to avenge Armaan's killing of Sonia. He vows that until Armaan is ruined, he will not do Sonia's final rites. Ranveer then establishes contact with Omisha, who tells him that she is Sonia's sister Tanya and she too wants revenge. Omisha agrees to help Ranvir in his plan. However, right after Ranveer leaves, Armaan shows up at Omisha's apartment, where it is revealed that she is not actually Sonia's sister, but she is actually working for Armaan. Ranveer, however, does not know this and still believes that she is Sonia's sister.

After this, Ranveer shows RD and Cherry that his plan is to steal the Shroud of Turin. Ranveer will steal the Shroud himself, but will tell Armaan that he is getting someone else to do it. That person will ask for 15 billion Euros from Armaan, which Ranveer will secretly take. After that, he will get away with the Shroud and all of Armaan's money. RD is afraid of Armaan and therefore betrays Ranveer. RD tells Armaan all of Ranveer's plan. Armaan then tells RD to give Ranveer whatever help he needs, but RD will still be on Armaan's side.

Ranveer lays flowers on Sonia's grave as Alina watches on. They then meet up with RD and Cherry, and Ranveer gives RD 10% of the money they made from ruining Armaan. There, Ranveer reveals that the Shroud was never even stolen from the Church of Turin because it was too holy to be sold in the underworld market. RD then tells Alina that he never trusted her even though Ranveer trusted her fully. Ranveer reveals how after everyone left the ruins of Antalya, Alina came back to take Ranveer to the jet. Then, they reveal how Alina switched the real money with the fake money while Ranveer and Armaan were fighting in the jet. RD then says that he does not want to risk his life again and makes Ranveer promise to never meet him again. Ranveer shakes on the promise but then warns RD that promises are made to be broken. RD and Cherry then leave in one small aircraft, while Ranveer and Alina leave in another.

Production for Race 3

After making two successful films, makers are planning the third Installment of this series. Saif Ali Khan will repeat his character from the prequels. Shah Rukh Khan was offered to play a negative role in Race 3 but the actor refused, because he is not in a mood to play a baddie again, and he also had prior commitments with Raees and Fan, and . In August 2017, it is revealed that Salman Khan will replace Saif Ali Khan in this installment, and Jacqueline Fernandez will also act in the film as a lead role, with Remo D'Souza has been roped in to helm the direction. Later in that month, it was reported that, Daisy Shah and Sooraj Pancholi will also feature in the film.