Cast
Anil Kapoor as Inspector Robert D'Costa a.k.a. RD, Ranvir's childhood friend.
Saif Ali Khan as Ranvir Singh a.k.a. Ronny, Rajiv's elder brother, a powerful businessman.
Akshaye Khanna as Rajiv Singh, Ranvir's younger brother and the main antagonist.
Bipasha Basu as Sonia, a supermodel and Ranvir's love interest, later wife.
Katrina Kaif as Sophia, Ranvir's secretary and Rajiv's love interest. (voice dubbed by Smita Malhotra)
Sameera Reddy as Mini, RD's assistant
Dalip Tahil as Kabir Ahuja, Ranvir's rival
Kiku Sharda as Sam, Ranvir's assistant
Johnny Lever as Max, marriage bureau chief (cameo appearance)
Gurpreet Ghuggi as police officer (cameo appearance)
Race is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language neo-noir action crime film directed by Abbas–Mustan and written by Kiran Kotrial and Shiraz Ahmed. It is the first installment in the Race franchise and stars Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapoor and Sameera Reddy. In the film, the professional and personal loyalties between brothers and businessmen Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan) and Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) are shown as a storyline.
Principal photography took place in Durban, Goa and Dubai, and was produced by Tips Industries. Race was theatrically released in India by UTV Motion Pictures on March 21st, 2008. The film received well critical acclaim from critics, with praise for its editing, screenplay, cast performance and music. It was a commercial success, grossing ₹103 crore (US$13 million) worldwide, making it the sixth highest grossing Hindi film of 2008.[1][2] It was followed by the sequel film Race 2 (2013) and the spiritual successor Race 3 (2018).[3]
A voice-over by Inspector Robert D'Costa "RD" (Anil Kapoor) introduces the four main characters. Ranvir "Ronny" Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is a successful and powerful businessman who runs a ranch house Stallions in Durban and fixed many horse races using finest breed of Horses. His younger brother Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) is an alcoholic. Ronny is dating an upcoming model Sonia Martin (Bipasha Basu), while his personal assistant Sophia (Katrina Kaif) appears to be secretly in love with him. Ronny is also involved in a competition with his business rival Kabir Ahuja (Dalip Tahil), who is also a horse race fixer.
The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident that Ronny narrowly survives. Ronny later kills his unfaithful jockey, who had been bribed by Kabir, and destroys Kabir when the latter offers to buy his company, which is in debt.
Rajiv drunkenly confesses to Ronny that he likes Sonia and would quit drinking for her. Ronny stops dating her and Rajiv and Sonia begin dating until, in a twist, Rajiv reveals that he knows of Sonia's shady past and plans to use her. His father had secured huge life insurance policies on each of the sons and he wants to kill Ronny and inherit $100 million in insurance payments. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million.
