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Kaminey

2009 film by Vishal Bhardwaj

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ3031575
Source-derived summary

Kaminey (transl. Scoundrels) is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and produced by Ronnie Screwvala under UTV Motion Pictures, featuring Shahid Kapoor in a dual role, alongside Priyanka Chopra and Amole Gupte in the lead roles. Set against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld, Kaminey follows a rivalry between a pair of twins, one with a lisp and the other with a stutter, over the course of a single day.

Bhardwaj bought the original script of Kaminey for US$4,000 from Kenyan writer Cajetan Boy—whom he had mentored at a scriptwriting workshop in Uganda, later collaborating with screenwriters Sabrina Dhawan, Abhishek Chaubey and Supratik Sen to modify it. Kaminey was released on 14 August 2009 and became a box-office success worldwide, grossing over ₹710 million (US$7.4 million) against a production and marketing budget of ₹350 million (US$3.6 million). The film's soundtrack album, composed by Bhardwaj, also became a commercial success, with the song "Dhan Te Nan" topping the charts on various platforms.

Kaminey received widespread critical acclaim, with several critics and media publications placing it at number one on their listings of "Best film of the year". Since its release, the film has attained cult status. It received several awards and nominations at ceremonies across India. At the 55th Filmfare Awards, it received ten nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor; it won the award for Best Special Effects. At the 57th National Film Awards, Kaminey won two awards — Best Audiography for Subash Sahoo and Special Jury Award for its editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.

Editorial summary

“Kaminey” enters the record as 2009 film by Vishal Bhardwaj. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kaminey, film and Vishal can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2009-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Kaminey, film and Vishal.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Kaminey” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kaminey, film and Vishal provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3031575. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kaminey”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kaminey primary sources, Kaminey archive and Kaminey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kaminey”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Kaminey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.