Rustom (film)

Rustom
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tinu Suresh Desai
Produced by	Neeraj Pandey Aruna Bhatia Nittin Keni Akash Chawla Bhaumik Gondaliya Ishwar Kapoor Shital Bhatia
Written by	Vipul K Rawal
Based on	K. M. Nanavati v. State of Maharashtra
Starring	Akshay Kumar Ileana D'Cruz Esha Gupta Arjan Bajwa Pavan Malhotra Kumud Mishra Usha Nadkarni
Music by	Ankit Tiwari Jeet Ganguly Raghav Sachar Arko Pravo Mukherjee
Cinematography	Santosh Thundiyil
Production company	Zee Studio KriArj Entertainment Cape Of Good Films Plan C Studios
Distributed by	Zee Studios
Release date	12 August 2016 (2016-08-12)
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹65 crore
Box office	est.₹216.35 crore

Rustom is a 2016 Indian crime thriller film written by Vipul K. Rawal, directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and produced by Neeraj Pandey. It features Akshay Kumar, Ileana D'Cruz, Arjan Bajwa and Esha Gupta in the lead roles.

The film is based on the real life incident of Naval Officer K. M. Nanavati and businessman Prem Ahuja.

Principal photography of the film was commenced in February 2016 and it was released on 12 August 2016.

The story dates back to the late 1950s and revolves around an Indian Naval Officer Rustom Pavri (Akshay Kumar), who is happily married to Cynthia Pavri (Ileana D'Cruz). Their marriage hits the rocks when Rustom discovers about his wife's affair with his friend Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa). After returning early from his ship's deployment, Rustom discovers Vikram's love letters in Cynthia's cupboard. While trying to find her, Rustom sees them together. He returns home and waits for Cynthia to return and then confronts her with the love letters, but walks away before Cynthia can explain. Rustom then gets himself a pistol from the Naval Ship's Armory and makes a Trunk call to Defence HQ, New Delhi. Afterwards, he searches for Vikram, first in his office and then at his home. After Rustom enters Vikram's bedroom, the servant hears three gun shots and rushes to the room, to discover Vikram's body in a pool of blood and Rustom walking away with the pistol in his hand. Rustom immediately surrenders to the police and Inspector Vincent Lobo (Pawan Malhotra) starts the investigation.

Vikram's sister Priti Makhija (Esha Gupta) hires the best lawyer in the city, Lakshman Khangani (Sachin Khedekar) to get Rustom the toughest punishment possible. Truth, a local newspaper, publishes the news adding some spice to it, which creates a stir in the city. On the one side the Navy supports its officer and asks the police to hand over his custody to them while on the other side the Parsi community offers help by hiring a good defense lawyer. Rustom refuses everybody's help and decides to fight the case on his own and prefers police custody. While the Editor in Chief of Truth, Erich Billimoria (Kumud Mishra), creates a sympathetic image for Rustom in public, Rustom's senior Naval officer Rear Admiral Prashant Kamat (Parmeet Sethi) sends two goons to his house to search for a set of documents, but they fail to find anything. Scared, Cynthia rushes to jail to inform Rustom, who hasn't talked to her ever since he is in custody. Rustom finally meets and listens to Cynthia's story, about how she was lonely and upset when Rustom went away to London for many months. With the connivance of Priti, Vikram took advantage of Cynthia's loneliness and she fell for him. However, on the day of Vikram's murder, Cynthia had already broken-up with him for the sake of her marriage. Vikram cannot bear her spurning him and slaps her hard. She gets injured and walks out of Vikram's house.