Based on a script written by Tushar Hiranandani and Milap Milan Zaveri, it stars Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles.

A young woman, Aisha Verma, tries to leave a message for her husband, Guru Divekar, when a masked man who has entered her house kills her by defenestration.

At her funeral, CBI officer Aditya Rathore points out that it is vital to track down the murderer or else Guru will go on a killing spree.

Past: Guru was a ruthless hitman working for mob boss Caesar, who raised and trained him to murder the goons who killed his parents.

While he dearly loves his wife, he vents his frustration by murdering other women who speak rudely to him, and Aisha turns out to be one of them.

Guru hunts down Rakesh and brutally beats him up, then admits him to a hospital and pays for the expenses, intending to punish him by repeatedly bringing him to the brink of death, saving him, and doing it all over again.

An enraged Rakesh stabs Guru with a screwdriver and takes up a boulder to kill him, but is hit by a car and dies from his injuries.

Ek Villain was earlier reported to be a remake of the Korean film I Saw the Devil, though Suri, the director, refuted the claim.

Tanuj Garg, representative of Balaji Motion Pictures stated the cuts were less than a minute of screen time.

[9] The official trailer of 2 minutes 18 secs was launched later and was well received by critics,[10][11] as well as garnered praise from around the industry, including Karan Johar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif among others.

[21] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama awarded the movie 4/5 stars and wrote that, "On the whole, Ek Villain is a stylish, spellbinding and terrifying edge-of-the-seat thriller.

"[22] Raedita Tandon from Filmfare gave the film 4/5 stars and stated that, "Though indulgent in parts, Ek Villain packs in a punch.

[26] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 2 stars, commenting that "Suri is an innate storyteller, and can keep things moving.

"[28] Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, stating that "Given free tickets, sure, you could escape Humshakals in theatres this weekend with this mediocre effort, but I say do yourself a favour and seek out the Korean DVD.