Daddy (2017 film)

Daddy is a 2017 Indian political crime drama film co-written and directed by Ashim Ahluwalia. The film stars Arjun Rampal, who also co-wrote and produced the film, portraying gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli. It also stars Aishwarya Rajesh in the lead role.

The official teaser of the film was released on 1 December 2016. Daddy is presented by Kundalini Entertainment and Karta Entertainment. The movie released worldwide on 8 September 2017, to a positive response from the critics and audiences alike, even if, grossing some worldwide 15 odd crores for a budget of 21 crores, it was declared a box-office flop.

Plot
In the 1960s and late 1970s, when Mumbai's textile mills were shutting down one after the other, many unemployed youths, including Arun Gawli (Arjun Rampal) resort to matka-gambling on the insistence of his friends, Rama Naik (Rajesh Shringarpure) and Babu Reshim (Anand Ingale), to earn some quick buck and form their own gang. However, soon, Gawli finds himself getting trapped in a vortex of crime when he is taken under the wings of Maqsood Bhai (Farhan Akhtar, loosely modelled on Dawood Ibrahim) after committing a murder. Further, their clashes of ideologies and power games turn them against each other. Meanwhile, Gawli marries his sweetheart Zubeida Mujawar (Aishwarya Rajesh), who coaxes him to leave behind his murky profession. He almost makes up his mind to turn clean. But, when Rama gets killed in a brutal police encounter, Gawli takes in charge of their gang based in Dagdi. He suspects that Rama's killing was engineered by Maqsood and thus begins a gruesome gang war between them. Hot on the heels is a cop, Vijaykar Nitin, who wants to nab Gawli at any cost and take him to the task. The rest of the plot revolves around how one of India's most feared gangsters landed up in politics and his transition to becoming 'Daddy'.

Cast

 * Arjun Rampal as Arun Gawli
 * Aishwarya Rajesh as Zubeida Mujawar / Asha Gawli
 * Nishikant Kamat as Inspector Vijaykar Nitin
 * Anand Ingale as Babu Reshim
 * Rajesh Shringarpure as Rama Naik
 * Purnanand Wandekar as Vijay
 * Anupriya Goenka as Hilda
 * Mir Sarwar as Samaad Khan
 * Shruti Bapna as Rani
 * Usha Naik as Arun's Mother
 * Shrikant Yadav as Sada
 * Deepak Damle as Phamplet Bandya
 * Girish Pal as Sachit
 * Raj Arjun as Rafique
 * Vijay Sanap as Salim Gurda
 * Vishal O Sharma
 * Abhimanyu Arun as Newman
 * Farhan Akhtar as Maqsood, loosely based on Dawood Ibrahim (special appearance)
 * Nataša Stanković as item dancer in the song "Dance-Dance"

Release
The official teaser of the film was released on 1 December 2016. The trailer of the film was released on 13 June 2017.

Reception
The film was praised by the critics, but it was declared a box office flop because it only made 15 crore from a budget of 21 crore