Special 26

Special 26
The poster features faces of all top-billed actors. The film title appears at bottom-left.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNeeraj Pandey
Written byNeeraj Pandey
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBobby Singh
Edited byShree Narayan Singh
Music bySongs:
M. M. Kreem
Guest Composer:
Himesh Reshammiya
Score:
Surinder Sodhi
Production
companies
Distributed byViacom 18 Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 8 February 2013 (2013-02-08)
Running time
144 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box officeest. ₹103 crore[2]

Special 26 is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language period heist thriller film written and directed by Neeraj Pandey. Based on the 1987 Opera House heist, the plot follows a team of criminals (Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher), who pose as CBI officers and conduct raids, robbing politicians and businessmen of their black money. With the real CBI (Manoj Bajpayee) on their trail, they decide to pull off their biggest heist yet. The film also stars Jimmy Sheirgill, Kajal Aggarwal, Rajesh Sharma, Divya Dutta and Kishor Kadam.

Filming began on 23 February 2012 in Delhi. The film was shot in Chandni Chowk, near Jama Masjid, [3] and Mumbai. A theatrical trailer was released online on 20 December 2012.[4] The film was distributed all over India by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Wide Frame Pictures.

Special 26 was released on 8 February 2013. It received widespread critical acclaim. Several critics called it one of the best films of the year.[5][6] It became a commercial success, grossing ₹103 crore (equivalent to ₹175 crore or US$21 million in 2023).

In 2018, it was remade in Tamil as Thaanaa Serndha Koottam starring Suriya in Kumar's role.

  1. ^ "Special 26 (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 14 February 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Special 26". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  3. ^ "Akshay Kumar shoots for Special Chabbis in Delhi". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 May 2013.
  4. ^ "Special Chabbis Official Trailer". 20 December 2012. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016 – via YouTube.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference choprahindustan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Sukanya Verma. "rediff Review: Special Chabbis is an exciting con caper". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2013.