[7] It stars Akshay Kumar as the lead character, with Vaani Kapoor, Lara Dutta and Huma Qureshi in an extended cameo appearance.

During her briefing, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, frustrated at the lack of action taken on the matter, decides to allow a RAW agent code-named "Bell Bottom" to handle the case.

As a "mere" clerk, he is already viewed with consternation by the other officials, and his deduction that the alleged masterminds, a Khalistan separatist group named "Azaadi Dal" (lit.

Soon after, though, Anshul is abducted by RAW, who reveal that one of the hijackers, Daljeet "Doddy" Singh, had purposely withheld her inhaler, pushed her into the galley and thrown heavy blankets on her, increasing her suffering as she died.

In 1983, he finds one of the hijackers while visiting his brother in London and tracks them; he raids their house with other RAW agents and captures three of them but the fourth, Doddy Singh, escapes in disguise.

Correctly figuring out that they will go to the Middle East to take advantage of their naivete in aerial terrorism, Anshul prepares for a covert operation in Dubai against the Indian ministers' wishes.

Disguising themselves as airport workers, they take advantage of a sandstorm to get on the field, free the VIPs, and capture the terrorists, redirecting the chartered flight to India.

In India, the terrorists are booked, with Zia and the ISI leaders huffing in disgrace, and the flight is returned, with all on board safe and sound and reunited with their families.

[27][28] The film was initially set for theatrical release on 22 January 2021 but was later moved to 2 April, then to 28 May and later to 27 July 2021 as it faced delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suchin Mehrotra writing for Film Companion criticised the screenplay of the movie saying that “in the end, somewhere buried within Bell Bottom are the building blocks of a great thriller.

It's just shrouded in simplistic storytelling and ‘hijacked’ by the pressures of the big Hindi movie formula.”[32] Monika Rawal Kukreja of The Hindustan Times praised the film for being an edge-of-the-seat thriller.

It was pointed out that the 1984 incident actually had the United Arab Emirates Defence Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the UAE authorities getting the hijackers, while the film portrayed Kumar's character and his team as the real heroes of the mission.