Dhoom 3 (
[ˈd̪ʱuːm 3], English:
Blast 3 or Boom 3, also abbreviated and known as
D:3 and
D3) is a 2013 Indian
action thriller film written and directed by
Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by
Aditya Chopra.
[7][8] The third installment of the
Dhoom series, it features
Aamir Khan as the
antagonist and
Katrina Kaif, with
Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role reprising his role of ACP Jai Dixit and
Uday Chopra reprising his role as Ali Akbar, as in the previous films of the franchise. Made on a budget of
₹175 crore (US$26 million), it was the most expensive Indian film, until it was beaten by
Baahubali: The Beginning.
Dhoom 3 was released on 20 December 2013,
[9] marking itself as the first
Indian film to be released in the
IMAX motion picture
film format[10] with
Dolby Atmos surround sound.
[11][12]
The film went on to gross
₹4 billion (US$59 million) worldwide in just ten days, to become the
highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time in international markets at the time and as of August 2016 is the
fifth highest-grossing Indian film of all time.
[13][14][15] It was the 77th highest grossing film of 2013 worldwide.
[16][17] The film was screened during the 2014
International Film Festival of India in the
Celebrating Dance in Indian cinema section.
[18]
Plot
In the year 1990, Iqbal Haroon Khan (
Jackie Shroff) runs The Great Indian Circus in Chicago, which has fallen on bad times. Anderson's (
Andrew Bicknell)
bank — Western Bank of Chicago — which has lent money to Iqbal Khan,
decides to close down the circus when Khan is unable to repay the loan.
Young Sahir (Siddharth Nigam), the little son of Iqbal Khan, pleads with
Anderson not to shut down his father's circus, as he and his father
would soon be able to turn the corner. But Iqbal Khan's presentation
before the bankers and Sahir's pleas don't help. Iqbal Khan commits
suicide in front of the heartless Anderson, leaving Sahir devastated.
Now in 2013, Sahir (
Aamir Khan)
has still not forgotten the high-handedness of the bank and swears
revenge. He robs various branches of Western Bank of Chicago, leaving
behind a message in Hindi and a clown mask. During the chase, he runs
from top to the bottom of the Western Bank of Chicago building. As the
Chicago Police Department comes to the scene, he runs into a van as they
begin to surround the vehicle. Sahir jumps out in a
BMW K1300R
after a little explosion. On the chase, he slides under a truck and
pops out to continue. He further kicks a police officer off his patrol
motorcycle causing the officer to lose control and crash into a
newspaper stand. While beyond that, Sahir continually tries to escape
his pursuers and goes into a public parking garage. Then out of nowhere,
he uses a steel cable cord like an attachment and rides his bike on it
and is nearly knocked down by a train. despite all efforts of law
enforcement, the robbery isn't foiled and he successfully gets away.
As Chicago Police Officer Victoria (
Tabrett Bethell) fails to catch him, she calls ACP Jay Dixit (
Abhishek Bachchan) and his partner, Ali (
Uday Chopra),
for help in solving the case. Jay baits Sahir into robbing again by
making it known he's on the case and that he believes the thief to be an
amateur thereby goading him on. Gathering information from a news
channel regarding the plan, Sahir poses as an informant for Jay, and
manages to gather information on the bank while giving Jay a lead to
follow. Eventually, Sahir robs the bank and escapes, but Jay and Ali
follow him. During the pursuit, Sahir nearly knocks Ali and jumps over
Wabash Avenue as the bridge rises, his bike transforms into a jet ski.
While on a water pursuit, Jay takes a boat and chases Sahir. After
almost knocking off Ali, Sahir is about to reach the next bridge but the
police arrives. Sahir dives underwater, then jumps out from the water
transforming his jet ski back to his bike. Jay, while hanging on a
helicopter ladder, manages to shoot Sahir on the left shoulder before he
disappears again.
Sahir has a big premiere of a revamped version of The Great Indian Circus, with his female lead acrobat, Aaliya (
Katrina Kaif),
involving a trick with him disappearing in one place and showing up in
another. The show is a success, but afterwards, Jay, Ali, and the police
surround him, knowing he's the thief. Jai says the proof will be the
gunshot wound, but when Sahir is examined, there is no evidence of a
gunshot wound anywhere on his body. Jay and Ali leave while Sahir
retires to his dressing room. It is then revealed that Sahir has an
autistic twin brother, Samar, who helps him pull off his trick and helps
him in planning and pulling of the robberies and it was Samar who
sustained the gun-shot wound.
Jay is fired from the case, but is encouraged by Ali to prove Sahir's
guilt by going rogue. Jay eventually finds out about Samar, and sets
about finding a way to corner Sahir. Samar, being mentally challenged,
is kept in seclusion by Sahir. However, he allows Samar outdoors once a
week, and Jay manages to befriend him during this time in order to
perform his plan. Samar has fallen in love with Aaliya after performing
with her in the circus, but cannot express it. This leads to a rift
between the brothers. Jay tries to take advantage of this, but Sahir
finds out and thwarts Jay's plan to stop them.When Sahir comes in the
disguise of Samar, Jay reveals his true identity and assuming him to be
Samar, tells him to surrender since he can give them justice. When Sahir
reveals himself, he ties Jay to the track of a roller coaster and tells
him that he used Samar for his own benefit. He switches the roller
coaster on but Ali arrives in time to save him from being crushed. He
decides the only way to catch the brothers is in the act of robbing.
Sahir and Samar pull off their final bank heist, and escape. However,
the following day, Jay manages to corner them as they're making their
way out of town. They rob on 22 May. Samar is hesitant to run when
Aaliya shows up, begging him to stop. Sahir surrenders to Jay, asking
him to spare Samar. Jai agrees, but right after, Sahir attempts to jump
off the dam. Samar grabs Sahir's hand, refusing to let him go. Sahir
begs Samar to let go, saying he can live freely with Aaliya. But Samar
says that both of them are born together and should die together.
Eventually, the two of them jump off the dam together. Western Bank of
Chicago is shut down as a result of the heists, while Aaliya is shown
having taken over The Great Indian Circus and still performing for it.
Cast
Production
Development
Prior to
principal photography, the film enjoyed widespread media coverage
[20][21] due to the tremendous box office successes
[22][23][24] of previous instalments
Dhoom 2 and
Dhoom, thereby creating anticipation amongst audience and media.
[25] On 2 January 2011, the producer of the previous
Dhoom films Aditya Chopra, confirmed that the third instalment of the
Dhoom
series would begin principal photography by the end of 2011. Initially,
the producers and the lead actor Aamir wanted to release the film on
Christmas of 2012,
[26]
but the plan was scrapped in favour of an early release date in 2013,
mainly due to a forecast that a Christmas release would force a rushed
post-production schedule, which was considered unfavorable given the
high degree of technicality required for the film.
[27] Dhoom 3 had around
₹1.25 billion (US$19 million) spent on just production side.
[28]
Reportedly, Chopra wanted to make the film in
3D
after observing the successes of previous Bollywood films released in
the same format. However, actor Aamir Khan opined that the 3D technology
needed expertise and was unsure of the outcome of its utilisation by
the director.
[29] As of September 2012,
YRF Studios had not announced the production of the film in 3D.
[30]
Casting
Aamir Khan was signed on to essay the lead
antagonist, while Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra were confirmed to reprise their roles as Jai Dixit and Ali Akbar respectively.
[31] Katrina Kaif was signed as the lead heroine, starring opposite Khan. He learnt ballet,
[32] aerobatics[33] and the French technique of
parkour,
[34] a method of movement focused on negotiating obstacles with speed and efficiency, while Kaif took
paragliding training and singing lessons.
[35] Bachchan reportedly lost nine kilos of weight to prepare for his role in the film.
[36] Rimi Sen,
who played the role of ACP Jai Dixit's (character played by Abhishek
Bachchan) wife in the previous two instalments of the series, was not
approached to play her character Sweety. However, she stated that she
would not have reprised the role even if she were offered.
[37][38] Unlike the first two
Dhoom films directed by Sanjay Gadhvi, Vijay Krishna Acharya the writer of all three instalments of
Dhoom was roped in to direct
Dhoom 3.
[31] Stunt Director Olliver Keller was signed to direct the stunt scenes.
[39] Aamir Khan stated in an interview that his role in
Dhoom 3 is the toughest role so far in his life.
[40] The action scenes were directed by
Conrad Palmisano and Sham Kaushal.
[41] In an interview with
IANS, Abhishek Bachchan expressed how every character of
Dhoom 3 is significant: "...
Dhoom is my film and I am the hero. Nobody can take that away from me. You can be the biggest or the smallest star but
Dhoom is about Jai and Ali. It is as simple as that. If the characters of Jai and Ali are not there in
Dhoom, the film won't be there."
[42] On 23 September 2013, three months before the actual release of the film,
DNA and other media news publications revealed that there could be double role of Aamir Khan in
Dhoom 3, but they have not confirmed it that time.
[43][44][45][46][47][48][49] It was only confirmed at the release of the film, that Aamir Khan has a double role in the film. This made
Dhoom 3 the first and currently the only film yet, in the
Dhoom
movie series, in which the antagonist has a double role. However, this
was not the first time the series featured a double role since
Bipasha Basu had a double role in
Dhoom 2 as Shonali and Monali, but did not share the same screen space, unlike Khan.
Filming
Contra Dam in Switzerland, where the climax of the film was shot
Filming was scheduled to commence from November 2011, with scenes involving Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra being shot first,
[50]
but the former was off on a paternity leave and thus, shooting was
postponed to January 2012. In January 2012, the schedule was pushed to
June 2012 because of lead actor Aamir's prior commitments with his TV
show
Satyamev Jayate;
in June, the filming schedule was further postponed for a month because
Khan wanted to prepare himself for his role of a gymnast. Additionally,
Khan wanted to concentrate on marketing and promotions of his 2012 film
Talaash.
[51] Without any further delays, filming commenced with
Jackie Shroff and Siddharth Nigam, the child actor playing the role of childhood Aamir Khan on 8 June 2012 at
Yash Raj Studios,
Mumbai.
[52] Aamir Khan joined the crew in July 2012, filming for five days at
Yash Raj Studios
and further continued to shoot in Chicago and other parts of the United
States. Later, Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra flew to the US on 4
August 2012 to complete a three-month schedule. On arrival to India in
December 2012, Bachchan stated that fifty percent of filming was
complete and would again resume in
Mumbai.
[53] In the second week of March 2013, it was reported that the crew departed to
Zurich and
Ticino,
Switzerland to film the climax.
[54][55] The shooting of the film finally wrapped up on 14 September 2013 at a suburban studio in Mumbai.
[56] The climax scene in
Dhoom 3 is shot at the famous
arch dam,
Contra Dam (commonly known as the Verzasca Dam) in
Ticino, Switzerland.
[57] It is the same dam that became a popular bungee jumping venue after a
James Bond stuntman jumped off it in the opening scene of the 1995 film
GoldenEye.
[58]
Release
In November 2013, Aditya Chopra sent out a message to movie exhibitors all over the country to "Go digital or miss
Dhoom 3."
In detailed statements he claimed, "Release of movies through digital
and UFO digital cinema prevents piracy as the prints are water-marked
and finger-printed and can be traced back. It is believed that usually
films are copied for piracy when the reels are being transported to
theatres in the country and abroad. Digital cinema curbs piracy as the
'en route' content leakage is eliminated. It also makes sense
economically as a producer saves a lot of print cost. Apart from that,
encrypting the content protects the copyrights of the producers and
distributors. Digital prints prevent duplication of prints and helps by
diverting funds back to the cinemas."
[59][60][61][62]
IMAX Corporation and Yash Raj Films announced that
Dhoom:3 would be the first Indian local language production to be released in the
IMAX format.
The film was digitally remastered in the IMAX format with proprietary
IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology and was released in
IMAX theatres across India and selective global locations.
[63][64] Dhoom 3 was released with cinema sound technology
Dolby Atmos. The film received a native Atmos mix at YRF Studios.
Dhoom 3 was given a 12A certificate by the
British Board of Film Certification for Moderate Violence 12 December 2013, for Moderate violence.
[3] The film was released across 4500 screens in India (inclusive of Tamil and Telugu versions) along with 750 screens overseas.
[65] Dhoom 3 had a release on 250 screens in
West Bengal.
[4][66][67][68][69] The maximum ticket price of the
IMAX version of
Dhoom 3 was Rs 900 (US$15) in India.
[70][71][72][73] Cinépolis Pune set a unique record by hosting 54 shows of
Dhoom 3 on 20 December 2013.
[74] Dhoom 3 was also released in non-traditional overseas markets like
Egypt,
Peru, Germany and
Malaysia.
[75][76][77][78] Dhoom3 is slated to release in China on 25 July 2014.
[79] It will be the widest release ever for an Indian film in China,with 2000 screens across 400 cities.
