10 years of Raja Natwarlal: Revisiting Emraan Hashmi's clever con game

It's been a decade since Raja Natwarlal made his big screen debut. The movie, in which Emraan Hashmi plays the lead role, is a crime thriller that Kunal Deshmukh directed and Siddharth Roy Kapur produced through UTV Motion Pictures. The film also stars Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Tijori, and Humaima Malik. Raja Natwarlal was well-received by critics upon its premiere on August 29, 2014. In case you plan to take a trip a decade down and revisit the film, it is available to stream on ZEE5 (OTTplay Premium).

Plot summary of Raja Natwarlal

In Raja Natwarlal, gangsters Raja (Emraan Hashmi) and Raghav (Deepak Tijori) make a living off of small-time scams as they swindle their way across Mumbai. The murder of Raghav during one of these con games causes a dramatic change in Raja's life, and he becomes determined to exact revenge on the one responsible for the death of Varda (Kay Kay Menon), his closest companion and business partner. Yogi (Paresh Rawal), a veteran con artist who went on a hiatus of his own accord, becomes his partner in crime. Raja and Yogi, together with their accomplices, want to carry off a huge fraud that will destroy Varda's name and fortune. In the end, will they succeed after all the challenges they've faced, or will the last act collapse in front of everyone's eyes?

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The news broke in May 2013 that UTV Motion Pictures would produce Kunal Deshmukh's next project. For their fourth collaboration, Deshmukh cast Hashmi as the lead. The film, Shaatir, revealed the actor as a "shaatir" con artist. The 1979 film Mr. Natwarlal, starring Amitabh Bachchan, served as inspiration for the title change to Raja Natwarlal in April 2014.

Casting speculations and final selections

Rumours began circulating that Abhishek Bachchan will be joining Hashmi in a supporting role. However, Abhishek Bachchan declined, and Paresh Rawal subsequently filled the role. The makers asked Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Jacqueline Fernandez to star as the lead female, but they couldn't accommodate the dates. Instead, they cast Humaima Malick, a Pakistani model and actor, as the lead female. Deshmukh revealed that Subrata Roy, the chief of the Sahara India Pariwar, inspired his character Vardha Yadav, and cast Kay Kay Menon in a key role.

Deshmukh brought in Yuvan Shankar Raja to compose the score for this film instead of Pritam Chakraborty, who had scored every one of his films. According to the filmmaker's subsequent statements, Pritam requested a break and introduced Yuvan to him.

Composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, best known for his work in Tamil cinema, made his Hindi film debut with this score. There are a total of six songs on the soundtrack album: four romantic songs (one of which is a reprise), one dancing song, and what Hashmi calls "a dhinchak tapori" song. Irshad Kamil wrote the song's lyrics.

It appears that The Sting, a Hollywood film, served as Raja Natwarlal's inspiration.

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