Ek Villain Returns - [2022]

CAST

John Abraham as Bhairav Purohit

Arjun Kapoor as Gautam Mehra

Disha Patani as Rasika Mapuskar

Tara Sutaria as Aarvi Malhotra

J. D. Chakravarthy as ACP V. K. Ganesan

Karishma Sharma as Siya, Gautam's ex-girlfriend

Kaizaad Kotwal as Siya's Father

Elena Roxana Maria Fernandes as Qiran

Shaad Randhawa as ex-CBI officer DCP Aditya Rathore

Bharat Dabholkar as Divesh Mehra, Gautam's father

Ivan Rodrigues as Thapar

Digvijay Rohildas as Keshav Rane, Bhairav's friend

Neha Shitole as Chetna

Satish Nakyodi as Satish

Riteish Deshmukh in archived footage appearance and a mid-credits cameo appearance as Rakesh Mahadkar

Badshah as himself in a cameo appearance in the song "Shaamat"

STORYLINE

    A masked intruder barges into an apartment complex, where he attacks and kills a singer named Aarvi Malhotra. The cops, headed by the ex-CBI officer and DCP Aditya Rathore, deduce that the attack was orchestrated by Gautham Mehra, who is the son of a businessman named Divesh Mehra, and arrested him.

    FLASHBACK: Gautam Mehra may be a spoilt brat, who is berated by his father, Divesh, for having created a commotion at his ex-girlfriend's wedding. The commotion video has been made into a rap song by singer Aarvi. Gautam plans vengeance against Aarvi. Pretending to be crazy with her, he helps her daunt her rival Qiran. Aarvi falls for Gautam and divulges her birth secret, that her father Balkrishnan Shastri, a famous singer, had an extramarital affair together with her mother, but never accepted either of them. Her main goal is to form her father accept her as his daughter by becoming a famous singer. Gautam leaks Aarvi's childhood photos and Shastri publicly rejects his daughter. Aarvi is heartbroken. Three months after the breakup, when Gautam gets attacked by his ex-girlfriend's husband, and Aarvi takes care of him, he realizes his love for her. He pleads together with her to give him a second chance, but Aarvi leaves him, albeit with an important heart.

    PRESENT: Gautam escapes from the cops. ACP V. K. Ganesan surmises that Gautam hasn't killed Aarvi. The cops interrogate Bhairav Purohit, whom Aarvi had called from her phone, the day she was murdered, but he denies committing the crime and there's no evidence either. Ganesan determines a pattern, that the killer only targets young girls with one-sided lovers, after discovering that 18 girls are murdered with a similar modus operandi in the past 6 months. within the ensuing circumstances, Ganesan determines that Gautam isn't a serial killer.

    FLASHBACK: Bhairav may be a cab driver who also works part-time as a zookeeper along with his friend Keshav. He meets Rasika, a retail salesgirl at a mall, falls deeply crazy with her and harbours plans of marriage. One day, Rasika injures a gaggle of rogues that were eve-teasing her, which reveals her dark side to Bhairav. The day Bhairav decides to propose to Rasika, he's witness to her getting intimate with her manager, a husband, and he's heartbroken. Rasika subsequently instigates him to kill girls who don't reciprocate the emotions of their respective boyfriends. at some point when Aarvi is travelling in his cab, Bhairav misunderstands that she has dumped Gautam, and attacks her.

    PRESENT: Gautam learns about Bhairav's zoo address and leaves to confront him. Ganesan is killed by Bhairav. it's revealed that Aarvi is in fact alive. She tries to flee the zoo where Bhairav had kept her but he catches her and locks her in an underground cage. even as Gautam and Bhairav are about to fight, the police come and detain Bhairav. They investigate Keshav’s (Bhairav’s friend at the zoo) kid who tells the police that his father is the killer. The police also investigate the crime scene where they find a girl’s body, but it's not Aarvi. Outside the station, Gautam sees Bhairav and Rasika hugging. They both attend to Aarvi’s cage and think that she is unconscious. But she isn’t and stabs Bhairav with a glass shard she found there. Rasika starts to laugh while Bhairav attacks Aarvi. Gautam involves saves Aarvi and a fight ensues between the guys. Bhairav hits Gautam and he falls to the bottom. Bhairav askes Rasika for a 5-star rating. Gautam starts to laugh and asks who Rasika is. He tells Bhairav that she is gone. Bhairav then realised that he had after all inadvertently killed Rasika while hugging her and asking her not to leave him. He drops to the bottom while Gautam and Aarvi reconcile. We see Gautam attending Aarvi’s concert.

    

In the post-credit scene, at a psychiatric hospital, we see Rakesh Mahadkar from the prequel, who has survived the accident, meet Bhairav, who has lost an eye fixed due to the tiger attack. Rakesh goes into Bhairav’s room and unplugs Bhairav’s medication and machines and recites his promise from the prequel and Bhairav wakes up just before the screen blacks out.