The film features an ensemble cast of Upendra, Shiva Rajkumar, Kiccha Sudeepa, Shriya Saran, Sudha, Murali Sharma, Nawab Sah, Suneel Puranik, John Kokken, Dev Gill, Kabir Duhan Singh, Danish Akhtar Saifi, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Posani Krishna Murali.

[4] In the film, Arkeshwara, an air force officer, enters the underworld due to unavoidable circumststances and revolves around his life between 1942.

Kabzaa was released on 17 March 2023 in Kannada, along with the dubbed versions of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam coinciding with the 48th birth anniversary of Puneeth Rajkumar.

Amarapura has always been involved in gang wars between three gangsters: Khaleed (M. Kamaraj), Bagheera (Nawab Shah) and Malik (John Kokken).

On their wedding anniversary, Madhumati heads to Veer Bahaddur for reconciliation, but he holds her captive in a cell and tells her about how he used Arkeshwara as a weapon to destroy Bagheera, Khaleed and Malik.

He calls up Veer Bahaddur to find about their whereabouts, but later gets surrounded by the ruthless cop Bhargava Bakshi (Kiccha Sudeepa), along with his battalion.

Just as he is about to retaliate against them, a mysterious gangster named Siddhantha (Shiva Rajkumar) arrives with his gang and aims his weapons at both Bakshi and Arkeshwara, ordering them to be fired, thus hinting a sequel.

[16] Kabzaa was theatrically released on 17 March 2023 in Kannada alongside Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam languages in 4000 screens in India.

[24][25] The film was premiered on Amazon Prime Video from 14 April 2023 in Kannada and dubbed versions of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages.

[34] Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote "Upendra’s gangster drama is similar to ‘KGF’ in more than just the looks, flavour, and genre; it's a rip-off loaded with empty shells of everything that made Prashanth Neel's films enjoyable"[35] Yatamanyu Narain of News 18 gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Kabzaa is the right film for you if you are craving to see an anti-hero like Rocky Bhai wreak havoc on the enemies in a full-fledged commercial set-up weaved with the help of adrenaline-pumping action sequences, edge-of-the-seat thrill, and larger than life characters.

[36] Vivek M V of Deccan Herald gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Kabzaa' is a clueless film with little emphasis on emotional resonance.

[37] Saketh Reddy Eleti of ABP Desam gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Kabzaa is a poor imitation of KGF where nothing works out.

Even on the action front, the stunts are too exaggerated to even make us root for Upendra, who sleepwalks through a role that’s interesting on paper but isn’t written in a way that it could become as popular as Yash’s Rocky from the K.G.F franchise.