Let’s pull back the velvet curtain on the three leads: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, and Kangana Ranaut. Their real stories, struggles, and techniques are as dramatic as the film itself. Ajay Devgn played Sultan Mirza—a fictionalized version of the real-life don Haji Mastan. Sultan is a man who wants to be a kingpin with a conscience: he smuggles gold but builds hospitals, wears white khadi, and quotes Urdu poetry.
When Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai hit the screen in 2010, it wasn’t just another Bollywood gangster film. It was a slow-burn, morally grey love letter to an era—the 1970s Bombay of polyester shirts, rotary phones, and rising crime. But the film’s real magic lay in its casting. Director Milan Luthria assembled a trio of actors who didn’t just play their parts; they inhabited the ghosts of Mumbai’s underworld. once upon a time in mumbai actors
Art imitated life. A few years later, Kangana would become Bollywood’s most fearless rebel, fighting the very "gangsterism" of film politics. Watching Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai today, you realize she wasn’t acting—she was rehearsing for her own war. The Secret Ingredient: Randeep Hooda (The Forgotten Genius) No article on this film is complete without Randeep Hooda, who played the honest cop, Agnel Wilson. In a film of grey characters, Hooda brought a tragic black-and-white hero. His screen time is just 12 minutes, but his final confrontation with Devgn— "Main tumse chhoti gundi nahi, bade aadmi ki tarah baat kar raha hoon" (I’m not a small crook talking to you, I’m a big man)—is the film’s moral compass. Hooda spent a week living in a real Mumbai police chowky to learn the casual swagger of a 70s officer. Conclusion: Why It Still Works Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai works not because of its shootouts or its retro soundtrack, but because of a perfect storm of casting: the stoic veteran (Devgn), the hungry outsider (Hashmi), the rebellious woman (Ranaut), and the honest mirror (Hooda). They weren’t just playing gangsters. They were playing versions of themselves, dressed in bell-bottoms and betrayal. Let’s pull back the velvet curtain on the
Kangana was just 23 when she shot the film. Her character is torn between the dignified Sultan (Devgn) and the dangerous Shoaib (Hashmi). Originally, her role was just eye-candy—a few songs and a weepy scene. Kangana famously fought with Luthria, demanding that Rehana have a spine. She improvised the climactic monologue where she slaps Shoaib and says, "Tum logon ki dosti mein dum hi nahi" (Your friendship has no strength). Sultan is a man who wants to be
And that, dear reader, is the real once-upon-a-time.