Zanjeer () is a 2013 Indian action crime film directed by Apoorva Lakhia. The film is shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, the latter titled Thoofan (). A remake of the 1973 Hindi film of the same name, it stars Ram Charan (in his Hindi film debut) and Priyanka Chopra (in her Telugu film debut) with Sanjay Dutt in a pivotal role in the Hindi version who is replaced by Srihari in Telugu. Prakash Raj, Atul Kulkarni, and Mahie Gill play supporting roles.
Reliance BIG Entertainment bought worldwide distribution rights for . Upon release the film got mostly negative reviews.
Plot
Assistant Commissioner of Police Vijay Khanna is a brutally honest police officer who has been transferred yet again by the system for chasing the corrupt underworld goons. He is continuously disturbed by the killing of his parents years back. He keeps remembering a man in a black raincoat on his birthday.
Vijay is in charge of a case where the district collector has been murdered and burned to death. The key eyewitness, Mala (Priyanka Chopra), has seen the murder by Teja's (Prakash Raj) gang and refuses to cooperate. Teja is the head of an oil mafia operation and does not want Mala alive. Vijay manages to convince Mala to give a statement which makes her perpetrators come after her. He gives her shelter in his house to protect her, and she starts to like him, while Vijay does not reciprocate the same. This includes her giving him a potato and egg for lunch at his office and then annoying him by celebrating his birthday. He shouts at her, and she begins to cry. Vijay tells her that he did not want to celebrate because his parents were killed on the very day and reveal his past to her. He finally reciprocates her love as he realized that Mala is slowly becoming an important part of his life.
Vijay also encounters Sher Khan, who is into buying and selling of illegal cars. Seeing Vijay's honesty and determination, Sher Khan turns over a new leaf and mends his ways to transform into a person who now only goes by the book. He has made Vijay a friend for life and will do anything to help him out. Vijay also encounters Jaydev a.k.a. JD, a reporter who had written bad comments about Vijay in the newspaper. Seeing Vijay's honesty and integrity, Jaydev becomes an admirer of Vijay and begins to give him all the information he has regarding the oil mafia.
Meanwhile, Kataria the man who murdered the collector, has been caught by Vijay. Kataria is revealed to be Teja's man, and he reveals that they steal petrol and oil from container trucks, add kerosene in them, and smuggle them around and outside the country. Vijay uses this information and puts Kataria in custody, but the next day, he is found murdered in custody. In the middle of this, Vijay also finds about a man named Prashant Khanna, who was killed years back by Teja. Due to certain incidents that gave Vijay wrong information about the oil mafia that Teja is handling, Vijay is suspended until the investigation is done with. Now, Vijay warns Teja that there are no seniors or rules that bind him, and now, Vijay will finish Teja in his own style. Slowly, Vijay begins to destroy almost all of Teja's oil refineries, but Mala says that all these activities that Vijay is doing can have dangerous consequences.
One night, Vijay and Mala go to a restaurant for dinner, where Vijay gets attacked by two of Teja's men in the bathroom. Vijay kills both the men and calls Teja and warns him that even if he sends the rest of his 248 men (it was earlier mentioned by Teja that he has 250 workers under him), nothing will happen to Vijay. A few days later, Sher Khan invites Vijay and Mala to a party. Later on, when they are returning home, they are attacked once again by 10 of Teja's men. Vijay manages to lock Mala in a small room there and gets badly injured fighting them. He is almost killed, but just in time, Sher Khan comes there, handles the rest of the goons, and along with Mala, and takes Vijay to the hospital.