In Mumbai, Champak Lal (Manoj Joshi) is a successful match-maker and wedding organizer. But his business starts going downhill when his son, Mansukh (Himesh Reshammiya), joins him. After destroying many weddings unintentionally, Mansukh is thrown out of the house by his father. A depressed Mansukh pays a visit to his friend Jeevanlal Praanlal D'costa (Sanjai Mishra), who advises him to stop drinking, but Mansukh doesn't listen. So Jeevanlal snatches the bottle but in the process, the bottle crashes into the windshield of a car, due to which the car crashes into a tree and stops.

The car was being driven by Indu (Asin), who intentionally scares her grooms away by taking them for a dangerous long drive, the same trick she was using when her car crashed into the tree. Indu turns out to be the sister of an underworld don TT, i.e. Tatya Tukaram Tendulkar (Mithun Chakraborty), who wants to get her married to a decent family. TT's goons abduct Mansukh and Jeevanlal due to the incident. On learning that Mansukh is a match-maker, TT assigns him the task of finding a good groom for Indu, in return for letting Mansukh live. Jeevanlal is sure that they're going to die, but Mansukh claims that he knows a perfect groom for her.

This groom is none other than Bahattar Singh (Akshay Kumar), aka Khiladi 786, a police officer from a small village Taasi in Punjab., who never lets goons get away. His family consists of his father Sattar Singh (Raj Babbar), Sattar's younger brother Ikhattar Singh (Mukesh Rishi), and their wives . It is mentioned that Bahattar's brother Tehattar (73) was lost as a child. Even Bahattar has had tough luck in finding a bride. But there's one thing Mansukh doesn't know; Bahattar and his family just pretend to be cops and wear fake uniforms. When Mansukh comes to their doorstep with an alliance for Bahattar, he lies to them by saying that TT is a police commissioner, due to which Bahattar and his family are forced to carry on their police act.

On reaching Mumbai, two families in the same house pretend that they are from the Police. Bahattar is constantly trying to woo Indu, but she's having none of it, since she already has a boyfriend named Azad Reddy (Rahul Singh). Azad is in jail, and whenever he is released, he performs some stupid act due to which he is put back in jail. On learning about Azad, Bahattar helps Indu break him out of jail. Due to this act, Indu realises that Bahattar is a nice person and develops and affection for him. After reuniting Azad and Indu, Indu and Bahattar are saying goodbye to one another, when they learn that the other's family are not cops. Azad interferes and talks rudely to Indu and tries to slap her, but is stopped, slapped and pushed away by Bahattar. Indu now realises that Bahattar is a better person to get married to, and holds his hand and walks home.

Now Indu and Bahattar tell Mansukh, who has by now already learnt the truth about the families, to continue the act and not let each family know the truth about the other. But sadly on the wedding day, they learn the truth. Immediately, Azad and his goons abduct Indu. Bahattar and TT fight them and rescue Indu. TT realises that Bahttar is the perfect man for her and blesses their alliance. To top the happiness, Tehattar Singh (Akshay Kumar) arrives, who is now a real police officer in Mumbai, and thus the family is reunited.

• Akshay Kumar as Bahattar Singh (72) / Tehattar Singh (73) (Bahattar's brother)
• Asin as Indu Tendulkar
• Himesh Reshammiya as Mansukh Desai
• Mithun Chakraborty as Tatya Tukaram Tendulkar (TTT) (Indu's brother)
• Raj Babbar as Sattar Singh (70) (Bahattar's father)
• Mukesh Rishi as Ikhatar Singh (71) (Sattar's younger brother and Bahattar's uncle)
• Manoj Joshi as Champaklal (Mansukh's father)
• Gurpreet Ghuggi as Sukhi
• Rahul Singh as Azad Reddy
• Sanjai Mishra as Jeevanlal Praanlal D'costa
• Johnny Lever as Inspector Bhalerao Kambli
• Rajesh Khattar as Inspector Jugnu Singh
• Mukesh Tiwari as Jailor
• Sejal Shah as Jigna (Champaklal's wife)
• Bharti Singh as Milli
• Navin Prabhakar as Raj (Asin's to-be husband whom she scares away)
• Mushtaq Khan as Bhagat (Milli's brother)
• Claudia Ciesla in a special appearance in song "Balma song"
• Cyndy Khojol as Cheen

In March 2012, it was announced that Ashish R Mohan and Himesh Reshammiya would be creating an action-comedy film starring Akshay Kumar. In April the title was identified as Khiladi 786, the return to the Khiladi series after 12 years. It was given an "U" certificate from the CBFC.

Casting

Reshammiya reported casting issues therefore the film was delayed. In April 2012 Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan was signed to play a main role. He soon dropped out and was replaced by Mithun Chakraborty. Claudia Ciesla was roped into a special appearance to do an item number.

Many rumours went out about the female leads. The choices included Ileana D'Cruz, Nargis Fakhri and Diana Penty. However, in June 2012, Asin was signed.

Filming

The filming began on 2 June 2012, for a 20-day schedule in Kamalistan Studios. The action sequences were provided by Jal Singh Nijjar and Peshal Oli

The soundtrack is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and the music is sold to T-Series, Eros Music and HR Musik Limited. Lyrics are penned by Sameer, R Mehndi, Shabbir Ahmed and Reshammiya. Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh recorded the song "O Bawariya" for the film. Reshammiya sang the song "Hookah Bar".

Taran Adarsh on Bollywood Hungama gave the movie 3.5/5 stars and said that it was "for lovers of hardcore masala films completely." Madhureeta Mukherjee from Times of India stated, "For those looking for some logic-less laughtime, groovy tunes topped with some todh-podh - this one could bring some action to your weekend."

India

Khiladi 786 opened to strong response at single screens but weak at multiplexes. It had good opening with a collection of around ?87.5 million (US$1.3 million) on its first day. It netted ?92.5 million (US$1.4 million) on its second day of release.^[10] Khiladi 786 had further growth of around 20% on Sunday, netting ?115 million (US$1.7 million) bringing the total nett collections to around ?293 million (US$4.4 million) at the end of its first weekend.^[11] The film had good collection of ?450 million (US$6.7 million) in its first week.^[12]

It further netted around ?105 million (US$1.6 million) in its second weekend.^[13] Khiladi 786 collected ?201 million (US$3.0 million) in week two.^[14] The film netted ?633 million (US$9.4 million) at the end of its theatrical run in domestic market and its distributor share was ?328 million (US$4.9 million).^[15]

Overseas

Khiladi 786 had a poor reception overseas with around $5 million over the first weekend.^[16] It collected $1.5 million in ten days overseas.^[17]

Award nominations

• Himesh Reshammiya was Nominated for Breakthrough Supporting Performance (Male) – Stardust Awards 2013.^[18]
• Won: 13th Dadasaheb Phalke Best Supporting Actor (Reshammiya)