General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobara!

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobara! (original title: Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara!; Devanagari: वंस अपॉन अ टाइम इन मुंबई-दोबारा) is a 2013 Hindi-language crime romance film directed by Milan Luthria and the sequel to the 2010 film Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai¹^•². It stars Akshay Kumar as the underworld don Shoaib Khan, with Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha in a love triangle that drives the plot². The film was released on 15 August 2013 and was poorly received by critics and audiences³^•⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara!; promoted as Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Again before being renamed in June 2013¹^•⁵
Release	15 August 2013 (India, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States); moved from 8 August to avoid clashing with Chennai Express³^•⁵
Director and producer	Milan Luthria; produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor for Balaji Motion Pictures⁴
Lead cast	Akshay Kumar (Shoaib Khan), Imran Khan (Aslam), Sonakshi Sinha (Jasmine Sheikh), Sonali Bendre (Mumtaz Khan), Mahesh Manjrekar (Rawal)⁶
Runtime and rating	2h 40m; certified U/A in India¹^•⁷
Reception	IMDb 4.5/10 from about 8,100 votes; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 29% from 4 reviews⁸^•⁴
Music	Composed by Pritam Chakraborty, lyrics by Rajat Arora⁹

Spoilers

Plot and cast

The story picks up where the 2010 film ended. Shoaib Khan, who gained supremacy by killing his mentor and predecessor Sultan Mirza, is now the reigning don of Mumbai, with his influence extending to the Middle East¹⁰. His confidantes are his best friend Javed (Sarfaraz Khan), who oversees his empire, and his former lover Mumtaz (Sonali Bendre), now his closest friend¹⁰. On a visit to the poor Muslim neighborhood where he grew up, Shoaib meets the young Aslam (Imran Khan), takes him under his wing, and makes him a favored accomplice¹⁰.

The plot turns on a love triangle: Shoaib and Aslam both fall for the aspiring actress Jasmine (Sonakshi Sinha), putting their mutual admiration at risk⁴. Some sources give the character's name as Yasmin². A rival gangster, Rawal (Mahesh Manjrekar), joins hands with the police to eliminate Shoaib, supplying the film's cop-versus-don action subplot¹¹. The supporting cast includes Sonali Bendre, Sophiya Chaudhary as Sheela, Akash Khurana as DK, and Pitobash⁶.

Title and release

The film was announced and promoted as Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Again. In June 2013 the makers replaced "Again" with "Dobaara" (Hindi for "again"), and Girish Johar, then Head of Distribution and Acquisition at Balaji Motion Pictures, confirmed the new title and the 15 August release date⁵. The date had already been shifted from 8 August to avoid a box-office clash with Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express; the rescheduling was worked out between the two productions, with Jeetendra of Balaji and Shah Rukh Khan of UTV agreeing to separate the releases⁵. IMDb lists the original title as Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara!, with Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Again and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2 among its alternative titles³.

Production choices

Recasting Shoaib. Akshay Kumar replaced Emraan Hashmi, who had played Shoaib in the 2010 film. Director Milan Luthria told PTI that Emraan could not have played the role because the sequel needed an older actor for the now-established don, and compared the recasting to Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro playing the same character across The Godfather trilogy¹². Luthria said he set the sequel on a bigger stage and wanted to "reconnect with female audience again"¹².

Balaji Motion Pictures' own annual report describes the film as different from its prequel: where the first film was about a power struggle, the sequel is "a romantic trail underlining the mentor-protege relationship"¹³.

Reception

The film was a critical failure. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 29% Tomatometer from 4 reviews⁴, and its IMDb rating is 4.5/10 from about 8,100 users⁸. India Today wrote that the film "struggles all along to recreate the magic" of the 2010 original, that the narrative "sporadically runs out of ideas and pace," and that Luthria took about 140 minutes to tell a story that could have been told in two¹¹. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave it 1.5 out of 5, asking whether any juice was left in the retro-gangster style⁴. Danny Bowes of RogerEbert.com gave it 2 out of 4, writing that once the film becomes a slackly-paced love triangle it suffers from how badly the character of Jasmine is written⁴. Daniel Eagan, in Film Journal International, found the second half, "the part where everyone gets shot," dragging by comparison with the song- and action-heavy first half⁴.

Reviewers repeatedly identified the love triangle as the film's structural weakness. Audience commentary on Rotten Tomatoes describes the story as losing steam in the Shoaib-Aslam-Jasmine triangle, and one critic noted that the 1980s backdrop has little significance in the actual story⁴.

At the 2014 award season the film drew both a nomination and mockery: a Popular Award nomination for Best Actor in a Negative Role, and Ghanta Award and Golden Kela Award wins for Worst Actress and a Ghanta Award win for Worst Supporting Actor¹⁴.

Box office and availability

Rotten Tomatoes lists a United States gross of $286.0K for the film⁴. As of late 2026 it streams in India on Amazon Prime Video, Hungama Play, and VI movies and tv, free with ads on JioHotstar and MX Player, and is available to rent or buy on the Apple TV Store¹⁵.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026