Players (2012 film)

Players is a 2012 Indian heist action thriller film directed by the duo Abbas–Mustan and jointly produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Burmawala Partners. The film features an ensemble cast of Vinod Khanna, Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sikandar Kher, Omi Vaidya while Aftab Shivdasani appears in a cameo. The theatrical trailer premiered on 3 November 2011, and the film was released on 6 January 2012. It is an official remake of The Italian Job, and is the second remake of the 1969 British film after the 2003 American remake of the same name. Players employs the same plot as the 2003 version, while making the characters and incidents completely different.

The story follows a team of players, consisting of a don, a con-man, a lady thief, a seductress, a magician, an explosives expert, an expert hacker and a prosthetic makeup artist, who plan to steal gold worth ₹100 billion (US$1.2 billion) from a moving train. During the robbery they are double crossed by members of their own team.

Players was named one of the most anticipated Bollywood films of 2012, as it received hype ever since it was announced to be a remake of The Italian Job, was made on a huge budget, had a multistar cast, was filmed in foreign locations as New Zealand, Russia and even the North Pole—which was a first for a Bollywood film— and was heavily promoted. Upon release the film received mixed reviews from critics. It opened to a poor response at the box office, despite having a wide release.