International Khiladi

International Khiladi (transl. International Player) is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Umesh Mehra starring Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna in the lead roles.^[2] In an interview with Lehren Network, Khanna said that the film did not follow a conventional script while Kumar stated that the film had more romance than action.^[3]

International Khiladi
Poster
Directed by	Umesh Mehra
Written by	Umesh Mehra Ved Prakash Sharma
Produced by	Keshu Ramsay
Starring	Akshay Kumar Twinkle Khanna
Cinematography	S. Pappu
Edited by	Kamal Saigal
Music by	Aadesh Shrivastava
Distributed by	Eros Entertainment
Release date	26 March 1999 (1999-03-26)
Running time	180 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹7.75 crore (equivalent to ₹33 crore or US$3.9 million in 2023)[1]
Box office	₹16,19,37,500 (equivalent to ₹700 million or US$8.2 million in 2023)[1]

International Khiladi was released on 26 March 1999 and became a below average venture at the box office.^[1]

Plot

Payal is a news reporter who along with her cameraman Focus have been assigned the task of interviewing the world's highest ranking gangster named Rahul alias Devraj. In the process, Payal and Devraj fall in love with each other much to the opposition of Devraj's guardian Bismillah, Inspector Amit and Payal's brother Ravi. Ravi is later killed with Devraj being framed and arrested. Payal testifies against him and Devraj is sentenced to be hanged. After learning about Bismillah's sudden death, Devraj escapes from custody and begins to plot vengeance against his enemies, including Payal and Ravi's real killer. It is revealed that Amit was the one who killed Bismillah and Ravi and also joined Thakral to frame Devraj, but Amit betrays Thakral and kills him. Amit then takes Devraj on a flight where Devraj kills him and reunites with Payal.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Devraj / Rahul
• Rajat Bedi as Amit (Voice dubbed in Hindi by Inder Kumar)
• Twinkle Khanna as Payal, Ravi's sister.
• Vivek Shauq as Ravi, Payal's brother.
• Gulshan Grover as Thakral
• Mukesh Khanna as Bismillah, Devraj's guardian.
• Johnny Lever as Focus, Payal's Cameraman.
• Lester Speight as henchman of Gulshan Grover
• Asrani as Payal's boss
• Avtar Gill as Defence Lawyer D'souza
• Shahbaaz Khan as Police Commissioner
• Subbiraj as S.P. Sharma
• Ram Mohan as Prosecuting Lawyer Baburao
• Vivek Vaswani as Vivek Shrivastav
• Gajendra Chouhan as Rahul's father
• Shagufta Ali as Rahul's mother
• Omkar Kapoor as Young Rahul

Production

The film was co-produced by Canadian businessman Ajay Virmani. It was shot in Calgary and Toronto.^[4]

Soundtrack

All lyrics are written by Dev Kohli; all music is composed by Aadesh Shrivastava.

Songs

No.	Title	Playback	Length
1.	"Chookar Mere Man Ko"	Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik	6:06
2.	"Halka Halka Dard Hai"	Kumar Sanu, Kavita Krishnamurthy	5:07
3.	"International Khiladi"	Sonu Nigam	4:11
4.	"Kudi Kanwari"	Alka Yagnik, Roop Kumar Rathod	6:31
5.	"Lutiya Gaya"	Sudesh Bhosle, Jaspinder Narula	4:24
6.	"Saiyan Saiyan"	Abhijeet, Alka Yagnik	3:30
7.	"Yaar Maine Ek Sapna Dekha"	Udit Narayan	5:20

Rediff.com noted that the film's songs "seem to be good".^[5]