Ra.One is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language superhero film directed by Anubhav Sinha. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role and Arjun Rampal as the titular antagonist, with Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu, Dalip Tahil and Satish Shah in supporting roles. The script, written by Sinha and Kanika Dhillon, originated as an idea that Sinha got when he saw a television commercial and which he subsequently expanded. The film follows Shekhar Subramanium (Khan), a game designer who creates a motion sensor-based game with an immensely powerful virtual character. Designed to be more powerful than the game's protagonist, G.One (also portrayed by Khan), Ra.One serves as the antagonist. The latter escapes from the game's virtual world and enters the real world; his aim is to kill Lucifer, the game ID of Shekhar's son and the only player to have challenged Ra.One's power. Relentlessly pursued, the family is forced to bring out G.One from the virtual world to defeat Ra.One and protect them.
Principal photography began in March 2010 and took place in India and the United Kingdom and was overseen by an international crew. The post-production involved 3-D conversion and the application of visual effects, the latter being recognised as a technological breakthrough among Indian films. With a budget of , inclusive of publicity costs, Ra.One was the most expensive Indian film at the time of release, surpassing the budget of Enthiran (2010). The producers spent , including a marketing budget, which involved a nine-month publicity campaign, brand tie-ups, merchandise, video games and viral marketing.
The film faced controversies involving plagiarism, content leaks, and copyright challenges. Ra.One was theatrically released on 24 October 2011, the beginning of the five-day Diwali weekend, in 2D, 3D and dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu languages, with three international premieres being held between 24 & 26 October 2011. The film witnessed the largest international theatrical release for an Indian film as of 2011 and was preceded by high audience and commercial expectations.
Upon release, Ra.One earned praise for the visual effects, action sequences, direction, music, and the performances of Khan and Rampal, and criticism for the script and screenplay. Commercially, the film became the third highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2011 domestically, the second highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2011 worldwide, and broke a number of opening box office records. The film earned more than ₹207 crores worldwide and was commercially successful. It subsequently won a number of awards for its technical aspects, notably one National Film Award, one Filmfare Award and four International Indian Film Academy Awards. While initially mixed around its time of release, the film's reception has improved over the years.
Plot
In London, Jenny Nair, an employee of UK-based company Barron Industries, introduces a new technology that allows objects from the digital world to enter the real world using the wireless transmissions from multiple devices. Shekhar Subramanium, who also works for the company, is given a final chance to devise with a video game with a difference. To impress his sceptical son Prateek, and upon the request of his wife Sonia, Subramanium uses his son's idea that the antagonist be more powerful than the protagonist.
Shekhar's colleague Akashi provides the moves of the game's characters, Jenny does the programming and Shekhar gives his face to the game's protagonist G.One, whilst the antagonist Ra.One is faceless and has substantially greater powers than those granted to G.One, including shapeshifting. Ra.One is imbibed with a self-learning artificial intelligence. The game has three levels, and either of the players can only be killed in the third level using a special gun that holds a single bullet. While designing the game, Akashi notices some malfunctions but ignores them. When the game is finally launched, it receives a standing ovation and Prateek loves it so much that he insists on playing it instantly. He logs in under the alias 'Lucifer' and proceeds to the second level, but is interrupted by Akashi. The self-aware Ra.One, being unable to end his turn with Lucifer, becomes determined that Lucifer shall die. When the mainframe fails to shut down, Akashi calls Shekhar, who notices a problem with the game. Ra.One uses the new technology to enter the real world and breaks free and goes to find Lucifer.