Rowdy Rathore is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ronnie Screwvala under the UTV Motion Pictures and Bhansali Productions banners. A remake of the 2006 Telugu film Vikramarkudu, based on an original story written by V. Vijayendra Prasad, it stars Akshay Kumar in a dual role of a brave police officer and a thief. The film also features Sonakshi Sinha, Gurdeep Kohli, Yashpal Sharma and Paresh Ganatra in supporting roles, while Nassar portrays the main antagonist. In the film, Vikram Rathore, a brave and honest police officer is killed by a gangster named Baapji. But his team replaces him with Shiva, a thief who happens to be his look-alike, to avenge his death.

Filmed primarily in Mumbai and Hampi on a budget of ₹ 60 crore, Rowdy Rathore was released worldwide on 1 June 2012. Its music was composed by Sajid–Wajid. It opened to mixed reviews from critics and became a blockbuster at the domestic and worldwide box office. Good word-of-mouth had helped it to take its distributor share to ₹740 million (US$8.8 million) in India at the end of its run. It has emerged one of the biggest grosser ever in Mumbai circuit and grossed ₹515.5 million (US$6.1 million) in seven weeks. The film grossed over ₹203.39 crore (US$24 million) becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films.

Shiva is a small-time thief in Mumbai, who, one day, attends a wedding where he falls in love with Paro from Patna. He tells her the truth about his profession and resolves to give up crime because he loves Paro dearly. Before giving her commitment to give up crime, he decides to commit a large robbery along with his con-friend 2G, which would enable him to earn a lot of money to live an easy life. He "tricks" a woman at a railway station and flees with a trunk. This leads Shiva to Chinki, a little girl who was in the trunk instead of the wealth he thought was there. Chinki believes that he is her father. Puzzled, he is forced to keep Chinki with him as an honest police officer, Vishal Sharma, keeps his eye on him.

Shiva fears Paro will catch him with Chinki, and he will lose her forever. He finds a photo of Chinki and her father, who looks exactly like Shiva, thus realizing why Chinki thinks Shiva is her father. Eventually, it is revealed that Chinki's father is ASP Vikram Rathore, a brave, disciplined, and respected police officer whom criminals fear. While chasing a goon to find his daughter, Vikram gets hit by an auto, and his brain endures severe trauma. The doctor tells him that the brain injury is serious enough to put his life in danger.

After a few days, Shiva gets fed up with Chinki and breaks the tape recorder she uses to listen to her late mother's voice. The next morning, he learns that her mother died. Feeling guilty, he fixes the recorder and becomes fond of Chinki, taking care of her. Unfortunately, Paro sees this and believes he has a daughter that he hid from her, and she leaves for Patna, heartbroken. Soon, the goons who are after Vikram see Shiva. Thinking he is Vikram, they start chasing him. Shiva and Chinki flee for their lives and encounter the woman from the railway station, who tells Shiva to run. Enraged, Shiva is soon surrounded by the goons, but Vikram saves him and defeats the goons, despite getting severely injured. At the hospital, Shiva realizes that the railway station woman is, in fact, a real police officer, Inspector Razia Khan. The officers tell Shiva that the man who looks like him is Vikram and narrate the whole incident.

Six months ago, Vikram traveled to a village called Devgarh as the new ASP. There, a goon called Baapji and his son Munna caused trouble, torturing and extorting money from the villagers. Vikram immediately arrested Munna by force for abducting Vishal's wife, but he was released because of Baapji's political influence. Baapji arranged a party celebrating Munna's release. At the party, Munna humiliated the police officers and made them pull their pants down. Vikram, being the next target, moved back to the balcony, where Munna slipped off and died in the process. The next day, during a Ramlila event, Vikram was attacked by Baapji's brother Titla, where he was stabbed in the back and shot in the head while saving a village child. He was then assumed to be dead. While the police officers were getting ready to bury him, he started breathing, having survived. Everybody promised not to disclose this to anyone. The officers then took Vikram to Mumbai for treatment.

After Shiva hears the whole story, the doctors say that Vikram doesn't have much time left. Before dying, Vikram requests Shiva to take care of Chinki. Shiva promises and says that Chinki is now his daughter. Shiva, vowing to avenge Vikram's death, takes on Vikram's identity and goes to Devgarh with Chinki to take revenge. Paro finds out the truth and soon reconciles with him. Shiva sets Baapji's liquor factory on fire, distributes the grains and money back to the villagers, and has the police officers torture Baapji and his men in jail. Following a heavy climax, Shiva eventually kills Baapji and Titla and rescues Paro and Chinki after they are kidnapped by Baapji and Titla. The story ends with Devgarh now falling back into safe hands and Shiva, Paro, and 2G leaving on a train with Chinki, presumably back to Mumbai.

Akshay Kumar learnt a special combat karate technique for his character role in the film. Kumar reported that he had accepted the role in Rowdy Rathore since his son loves to watch him in action roles. Sanjay Leela Bhansali teamed up with designer Shabinaa Khan to co-produce Rowdy Rathore, which is his first film with Akshay Kumar. It is also Bhansali's second film as a producer and his first in the action genre. Maryam Zakaria was selected to perform an item number.