Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga: Ending Explained (In Detail)

Aircraft hijacks were once the norm: Most major countries in the world had witnessed at least a handful, and from groups with varied interests. Over time, enhanced airport security protocols have made it virtually impossible to hijack an aircraft successfully. Unless, of course, the hijacking is happening in Hindi cinema, which finds creative, Abbas-Mustan-esque ways to defy logic.

Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (2023), helmed by Ajay Singh, and produced by Dinesh Vijan and Amar Kaushik under the Maddock Films banner, marries the hijack actioner with the heist film, concocting a plot that involves diamond smuggling, corrupt ministers, dirty businessmen and, of course, hijackers.

Love is in the Air

Ankit (Sunny Kaushal) owns a diamond insurance company in Al-Barkat. Although successful, the loss of a client’s valuables has put him in the bind of having to repay Rs. 20 crores. On a flight, he meets Neha (Yami Gautam Dhar), one of the crew, and takes a liking towards her. He asks her out and they start dating. Over time, they come to trust one another with their secrets — Ankit revealing the debt he owes, and Neha confiding in him about having lost her accountant father when he misplaced some money belonging to a gangster. This deepens the bond between the couple, and when Neha suddenly reveals to him her pregnancy, Ankit proposes marriage and she accepts. Things go awry when the aggrieved client sends goons out to fix Ankit. In the ensuing scuffle, one of the goons kicks Neha, causing her to miscarry. Distraught and angry at the loss of her child, she decides to help Ankit repay his debt, and they formulate a robbery plan.

The Robbery

The Union Home Minister (Barun Chanda) has been gifted a diamond-studded phone, which is to be carried on one of Neha’s flights by a courier. Ankit contacts the Minister’s Secretary and, in exchange for half the diamonds, gets the codes for the briefcase in which the courier will carry the phone.

With the plan in place, Neha distracts the courier such that Ankit can steal the diamonds. Before he can retrieve them, though, a group of masked men bearing arms announce that the aircraft has been hijacked. They herd the passengers into the economy class, and put forth their demand: That the detained insurgent Adil Mir (Aashit Chatterjee) be released. Since Mir is imprisoned in Manali, the plane is diverted to Kullu Airport as per the hijackers’ instructions.

Ankit fakes an asthma condition in the hope of recovering the diamonds, but the hijackers get wise to his attempts and beat him up as an example for the other passengers. He finally manages to get the diamonds out and into his own bag when the hijackers are busy negotiating with the government, but he’s spotted by one of the gunmen, who also spots the diamonds. Before he can kill Ankit, the Flight Marshal Sudhanshu Roy (Indraneil Sengupta) shoots all of the hijackers dead, though not before some of them put a bomb on Ankit’s person and lock him in the bathroom. 

With the hijackers dead, the aircraft lands and a bomb squad makes an attempt to defuse the bomb, only to find that it’s fake. Agent Sheikh (Sharad Kelkar) of the R&AW is dispatched to the scene, and the authorities soon discover that there are no signs of a hijacking having taken place. A drugged passenger regains consciousness and identifies himself as Bhanu Yadav (Kamaal Malik), the Flight Marshal.

Sheikh takes Ankit into custody and interrogates him. It is also found that the diamonds on the phone Ankit has with him are fake. Finding no concrete evidence against him, Sheikh lets Ankit go. It is then revealed that Ankit’s romance with Neha was all a performance on his part to get the diamonds, and now he is under great pressure because there are no diamonds and the Minister’s people are breathing down his neck.

The Truth

The mystery of Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga is solved when it comes to light that Neha had learnt of Ankit’s intentions after accessing his phone in the aftermath of her miscarriage and had made a plan of her own, which involved her acquaintances from the underworld, who boarded the flight as ordinary passengers before assuming the roles of the hijackers and the Flight Marshal. The bullets Roy fired at the hijackers were fake, and he had swapped out the real diamonds for worthless duplicates before making his escape. The hijackers had shed their accoutrements and blended into the passengers when the plane landed safely.

Neha contacts the Minister anonymously and advises him to drop the matter unless he wants his smuggling connections exposed before the world. She also sends him evidence of Ankit’s plan, and the Minister has the businessman tortured and dumped by the wayside.

At the end of the film, Neha visits Ankit and reveals the truth to him, completing her quest for vengeance. A while later, he calls her up and warns her that he’ll be coming to exact some revenge of his own, suggesting the possibility of a sequel in which Ankit will try to get back at Neha for ruining his life.