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Main Characters
Ram
Alluri Sitarama Raju
Played by: Ram Charan, Varun Buddhadev (child)
Dubbed by: note
An officer of the Indian Imperial Police during the who aspires to rise in the ranks. To achieve a promotion to special officer, he tries to find and arrest Komaram Bheem, unaware that the man he's searching for is his new friend Akhtar.
- Alliterative Name: Not exactly, but he usually abbreviates his name to "A. Rama Raju."
- Anti-Hero: He longs to see the British Empire kicked out of India, however his method for doing so involves joining the British army and fighting his own people so that one day he will attain a high enough rank to be able to sneak shipments of guns to his people to fuel a rebellion. Though he clearly isn't happy about what he's doing, he'd go so far as betray his dear friend Bheem once he learned that Bheem was the man his superiors were after. Though on the other hand, upon learning that Bheem is to be executed on the same day that a shipment of guns is being sent out, he chooses to save Bheem instead.
- Broken Ace: Ram is a talented Indian soldier who is both an excellent strategist and a hardy enough fighter to clear his way through an entire mob just to retrieve one man. He's also a traitor to his people, as he's working for the British or so it seems. He's actually The Mole working to secure weapons for the rebellion. That being said, his fighting abilities did come from a very traumatizing place, as he watched his brother and mother get gunned down by British troops and had to shoot his father so that he could take down said troops in a suicide attack.
- Chick Magnet: Except Jenny, almost all the girls in the party were rooting for Ram.
- Child Soldiers: Ram was training alongside his father's rebel army when he was still underage (which already implies this for all the boys in the village). Subverted as the only time he practiced with a real rifle was in secret, due to his father not having enough of those. It does pay off as Ram has Improbable Aiming Skills.
- Clark Kent Outfit: His choice of clothing has him cutting a slimmer profile compared to the more burly Bheem. The times he's shirtless show just how absolutely built he is underneath his clothes.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Ram gets hit with this hard when he finds out that Bheem, the man he became close friends with, is the freedom fighter he's been tasked to apprehend. An additional layer is added with the reveal that Ram is actually on the same side as Bheem, but needs the promotion from Bheem's arrest in order to supply the rebellion with guns.
- Determinator: The lengths to which Ram will go to achieve his goals is illustrated in his prologue scene, "The FiRe," in which he fights through a massive crowd of protestors in order to bring back the man his superior wanted arrested. Later in the movie, it is revealed that the last few years of Ram's life have all been for the sake of infiltrating the colonial police, often forcing him to fight his own people, all for the singular purpose of fulfilling his father's dying wish of arming the rebellion.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Ram may be an enforcer for the British Raj, but he does so with good intentions, that being to steal firearms to arm his people so they can fight back.
- Face Death with Dignity: After getting a fatal snake bite thanks to Lacchu, he acknowledges his fate by setting Lacchu free, then goes off to find Bheem, presumably to say goodbye.
- Good All Along: It turns out that Ram isn't a traitor to his own people and only entered the ranks of the British army in order to deliver guns to the rebellion.
- Hidden Depths: Ram is trained as an imperial soldier and the best marksman in the movie, who's somehow just as accurate with a regular old bow and arrow.
- Historical Domain Character: He is a heavily fictionalized version of the real revolutionary leader Alluri Sitarama Raju
. - Improbable Aiming Skills: As a child, he managed to hit a bullseye about a hundred meters away with his first shot ever with any gun. He even hits a British soldier with an arrow through the gap between Bheem's arm and mouth as he is drinking water.
- Love Redeems: A plutonic example. His friendship with Bheem ultimately causes Ram to realize how lost he'd become in his effort to infiltrate the British and aid the rebellion from the inside, leading him to abandoning his original plan and let himself be captured just to save Bheem and Maali's lives.
- The Mole: Ram infiltrated the British police forces and worked up the ranks until he was in a high enough position to manage weapons inventory, where he can steal guns and ammo and secretly send them to the rebels.
- Mythical Motifs: He has some parallels to his namesake from The Ramayana. Like Rama, Ram's fiancée is named Sita, he has Improbable Aiming Skills, and he spends a significant amount of time in a sort of exile while completing his mission. This is almost literalised in the climax when he wields a bow and arrow and is dressed in robes, which, combined with his unshaven appearance due to being stuck in prison, makes him resemble the Lord Rama in exile.
- Noble Top Enforcer: Works as a soldier under the British Raj, but is an honorable and perfectly decent man otherwise. Especially since he's really an infiltrator planning to steal guns for his village.
- One-Man Army: In the opening, he fends off a mob of hundreds just to grab one guy, armed only with a bamboo baton.
- Romantic Wingman: Ram enthusiastically helps Bheem woo Jenny and even throws their dance battle so Bheem can impress her.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Ram wields a bow taken from a shrine against a squad of British soldiers with guns, grenades, and motor vehicles. He and his spear-wielding Bash Brother Bheem manage to take them all out.
- Translator Buddy: Ram is fluent in English, while Bheem is not. He acts as the go-between when he realizes Bheem is interested in the British Jenny, who can't speak Telugu.
- Troll: He has some elements of this during the Naatu Naatu dance, where at seemingly every opportunity he can be seen smirking at Jake. Especially when he joins in on the final dance-off.
Bheem
Komaram Bheem
Played by: N.T. Rama Rao Jr.
Dubbed by: note
The guardian of the Gond tribe who comes to Delhi in search of Malli, a member of his tribe kidnapped by the Buxtons. To this end, he poses as a repairman named Akhtar and inadvertently befriends Ram.- Animal Motifs: Tigers. His first scene has him wrestling with a tiger; while he's being interrogated by Ram, Lacchu compares him to a tiger; and during the attack on the governor's mansion he has his face painted with stripes that somewhat resemble a tiger's.
- Beneath Notice: The fact that Bheem is from one of the rural tribes makes it even harder for the British government to identify and find him. Ram even spends the bulk of his arc hunting down someone else.
- Character Tic: Whenever he's at a loss for words, can't understand when someone is speaking English, or all of the above whenever he's with Jenny, he does a little wobble with his head.
- Combat Medic: Leading a hunting party means that Bheem has to be ready to treat any injuries, including snake bites. He's good enough to return Ram to fighting shape twice.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Bheem does grab rifles from his enemies a few times, but tends to use them as clubs instead, contrasting with Ram's demonstrated inherent talent with guns from an early age. Fitting with his spiritual attunement to nature, he makes up for the difference in firepower when he launches a frontal assault on Scott's mansion with a van load of wild animals unleashed to cause chaos instead of heavy artillery. Making it more meaningful when he finally uses a gun to finish off Scott at Ram's request.
- Endearingly Dorky: Unlike Ram, he is not what you'd call a ladies' man, to put it mildly. Even if he understood English and didn't need Ram to translate for him, he'd still be just as smitten and tongue-tied whenever he's with Jenny.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Bheem goes from confused to heartbroken to enraged after Ram prevents him from saving Malli and reveals that he's part of the British military and has orders to apprehend him. It's to the extent that Bheem is willing to leave an injured Ram behind to the British after he decides to save him and Malli. It's only when Sita reveals Ram's backstory and true allegiance to the rebellion that Bheem forgives him.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: Downplayed. Bheem gets invited to Jenny's party, and Ram insists on grooming and dressing him for the occasion. It's not a dramatic difference but it's enough to get him into the party smoothly.
- Heroic Willpower: His shocking and brutal lynching by Ram is possibly the most visceral moment in the whole film. Yet despite all of that pain and blood spilt, he refuses to kneel to his oppressors, even singing as he's tortured. This defiance inspires a massive riot against the British forces and begins the true path to redemption for Ram.
- Hidden Depths: Bheem, depicted as a Noble Savage from the get-go, is able to remain undercover in the big city by learning to repair motorbikes.
- Historical Domain Character: He is a heavily fictionalized version of the real revolutionary leader Komaram Bheem.
- Manly Men Can Hunt: Bheem is introduced hunting big game in the forest and near singlehandedly manages to capture a tiger. This scene serves its ultimate purpose later when Bheem releases a dozen wild animals he's captured at a party to wreck havoc and distract the guards to search for Malli.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Sita reveals that Ram was actually working undercover for the rebellion the entire time, Bheem cries out in remorse for leaving Ram at the mercy of the British army after he was seriously injured rescuing him from the army's prison transport. He even stares at his hands in anguish when he hears the truth.
- Mythical Motifs: Though his isn't as extensive as Ram's comparisons to Rama, the lyrics of the song that plays during the final battle between Ram and Bheem against the British military compares Bheem to Bhima from Mahabharata, a legendary man with the strength of a dozen men.
- Never Learned to Read: Bheem, and by extension the Gond people - it's heavily implied that he could have cottoned on to Ram's true status as Empire police earlier if he understood half of all the texts Ram tends to be buried in. Though probably not his actual origins in the rebel army.note
- Nice Guy: He is so painfully sweet and good-natured that anyone who interacts with him for more than a few minutes picks up this pretty quickly. It even becomes a critical plot-point in that Ram is unable to fully commit to his betrayal, and begins to value his friendship with Bheem above his mission. If fate hadn't thrown them a bone, and Bheem never met Sita, it's likely those guns never would've made it to Ram's village.
- Secret Identity: For a good part of the movie, Bheem artfully poses as "Akhtar", a Muslim repairman in the city to avoid the authorities, who are aware that a man from the forest-dwelling Gond tribe is planning to free Malli. This fools even Raju who spots some discrepancies such as Bheem eating with his left hand (a gesture generally frowned upon in India but also forbidden among Muslims) but brushes it off as Bheem being brusque.
- Spark of the Rebellion: Bheem's song and public flogging was already inciting the Powder Keg Crowd, and his collapse that sets them off.
- Stout Strength: Bheem is the more heavyset and physically stronger of the two, as shown during "Dosti" when he can pull off squats with Ram on his shoulders.
- Strong as They Need to Be:
- Bheem has already shown that he's able to perform incredible feats of strength such as tearing ropes apart with his bare hands and breaking chains, but he still needs a razor blade to cut the ropes tying his hands together.
- On a broader sense, the entire plot runs on this. Bheem is unable to infiltrate the Governor's mansion to rescue Malli and his attempt to do so take months and an entire team and is always treated as a long shot. Infiltrating the Governor's prison to extract its most guarded prisoner while Bheem himself is the most wanted man in India? That's absolutely nothing.
British
Governor Buxton
Governor Scott Buxton
Played by: Ray Stevenson
Dubbed by: note
The current governor of India, who revels in the perceived racial superiority of the British.
- Antagonistic Governor: Governor of the British Raj in India, and responsible for sanctioning or directly overseeing their brutal subjugation of India's various peoples.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The opening scene in Gond involves Buxton parading a whole menagerie of deer he just hunted, to make sure everyone knows who's the Big Bad of this piece.
- Big Bad: The governer of India, and the one oppressing the local people.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: He goes hunting and is proficient with an engraved Martini-Henry rifle. It's apparently converted to fire .303 British, as Ram takes a bullet from Scott, and loads it into Bheem's Lee-Enfield to kill him.
- Beard of Evil: He has a distinct grey goatee and is easily the most reprehensible character in the film.
- Ermine Cape Effect: Governor Buxton is only ever seen in a full dress uniform, and even has an actual ermine cape in one appearance.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Buxton is an evil, evil man, but he genuinely loves his wife. He lets out a genuine scream of anguish after seeing Catherine's bloodied body in the aftermath of the explosion.
- Evil Brit: He's a sadistic British man who governs over a large part of the British Raj as dictator.
- Evil Colonialist: As a villain, he's not only meant to be a textbook example but the personification of British colonialism in India. His manner of dress and giant beard are clearly meant to emulate that of King George V as much as possible.
- Evil Overlord: Scott Buxton rules his part of the British Raj as a dictatorship. He orders that dissenters be brutally beaten to death, has entire villages massacred whenever they rise up and delights in having prisoners tortured in public in order to strike fear into the populace, which he also deems racially inferior.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Is seen lighting up a cigar multiple times.
- Hidden Depths: While he never speaks it, it's heavily implied he fully understands Telugu as he can easily carry a conversation with Ram even as the latter chooses to speak his native language from time to time. He's also much, much more perceptive than he appears to be, and quickly twigs to the fact that something is not right after shaking Ram's hand and noticing the gun grease on his palm.
- Hypocrite: Enjoys a very expensive lifestyle and hosts opulent parties but is obsessed with pointing out how British ammunition is supposedly too expensive to be wasted on executing Indian dissidents.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Downplayed in that he doesn't really stand much of a chance against either Ram or Bheem in a fight and relies on his troops, but he's the only member of the occupying British forces who displays anything resembling the superhuman feats of the two leads, effortlessly grabbing his rifle midair while his car is in the process of turning over and shooting Ram's transport.
- Spotting the Thread: Cruel and brutish as he is, he's very perceptive. He figures out that Ram plans to betray him very quickly by noticing him talking to Malli and a suspicious tree on the roadside.
- Super-Reflexes: He manages to grab his rifle in midair in the middle of a career crash and shoot Ram's car without breaking a sweat.
- Would Hurt a Child: Buxton points his rifle at Malli during Bheem's rescue attempt, intending to kill her if Bheem doesn't surrender to Ram.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: One of Scott's repeated displays of sadism and racism in one is an absolute refusal to allow his soldiers to use their guns to kill peasants unless absolutely necessary, considering the cost of manufacturing and transporting the bullets all the way from London to India to far outweigh using them to kill worthless natives, often telling them to use whatever objects they can find to give the unfortunates a drawn-out and painful beating to achieve the same. Ram and Bheem later throw this sentiment back in his face when executing him with an English rifle, considering him to be well worth the cost of the bullet.
Catherine
Catherine Buxton
Played by: Alison Doody
Dubbed by: note
Scott Buxton's domineering and equally bigoted wife.
- The Baroness: Of the Rosa Klebb type. She is a high-ranking and overtly domineering woman with a nasty sadistic streak, most blatantly in Bheem's flogging scene when she casually tosses down a whip lined with nails to Ram and orders him to use it on a wooden post first just to show how it'll tear through Bheem's flesh.
- Evil Colonialist: Like her husband, she personifies British colonialism in India, namely its greed. She regards all of India, people included, as treasures that she has the right to collect and keep whether the locals like it or not.
- Sadist: Is eager to watch Bheem bleed as he is beaten, is vocally disappointed when he refuses to kneel, and is even the one to throw Ram the spiked whip in the hopes of inflicting more pain upon him.
Jenny
Jenny
Played by: Olivia Morris
Dubbed by: note
The niece of Scott and Catherine, a kindly and open-minded young woman.
- English Rose: Jenny stands in stark contrast to the rest of the Brits with significant screentime, who are snobby racists at best or violent Evil Colonialists at worst. She's a classically pretty and feminine young woman with a high status (as the niece of the Governor of India), a sweet personality, and is Nice to the Waiter and the Indians the British rule over.
- Nice to the Waiter: Fitting with her characterization as a Nice Girl, she buys presents for Malli (the native girl her aunt 'bought' from her tribe) to try and cheer her up, and warmly greets the guard who opens the gate of the governor's mansion.
- Token Good Teammate: Jenny is the only British character with any significant screen time who is shown to be unambiguously good and even helps the protagonists. She's even got a firm enough sense of morality to unquestioningly help Bheem when he comes back for another rescue mission after deceiving her into helping him with his first one. In fact, she's the only white character in the ending dance montage.
Edward
Edward
Played by: Edward Sonnenblick
Valet and henchman to the Buxtons.
- Battle Butler: Edward, personal servant to the Governor and his wife, leads the special forces in going after Bheem. He doesn't get much chance to fight though before Bheem kills him.
- The Dragon: Edward is nominally just the Buxtons' butler but he also seems to be Governor Buxton's all-purpose henchman, to the point of leading the special forces sent to capture Bheem.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Like his employer, he also smokes a cigar at one point.
Jake
Jake
Played by: Eduard Buhac
A British citizen who is challenged by Ram and Bheem to a dance competition.
- Dance-Off: He challenges Ram and Bheem during the big "Naatu Naatu" dance number, and is the last Englishman standing.
- Smug Super: He's actually a damn good dancer - amazing, even, but not quite as good as Ram and Bheem. That said, his jackass attitude and sense of superiority takes away what few points he would've gained from this.
- Sucks at Dancing: Averted. He can't beat Ram and Bheem in the dance-off, but he does better than the rest of the British citizens.
Indian
Malli
Malli
Played by: Twinkle Sharma
Dubbed by: note
A little girl from the Gond tribe who is abducted by the Buxtons at the beginning of the film.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: She is a talented singer who's even able to make birds chirp with her song. Catherine is amused by Malli's lovely voice and artistic talents, and promptly kidnaps her.
- Damsel in Distress: She is kidnapped from her home and kept cloistered in the Governor's mansion. Malli's people, led by Bheem, spend the film working to retrieve her.
- Earthy Barefoot Character: Just like Bheem and the rest of her people, she is a forest-dweller who is close to nature. Even after she's captured and given fine English dresses and shoes to wear, the shoes are off when there are no Englishmen in sight. After she is freed, she never once puts them back on.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The plot is kickstarted by the Governor and his wife stealing Malli from her tribe to be their personal servant and entertainer. Bheem sets out to rescue her; Ram volunteers to nab the rescuer.
Lacchu
Lacchu
Played by: Rahul Ramakrishna
Dubbed by:note
Bheem's tribesman and companion.
- Animal Motif: Snakes. Ram's uncle compares him to a snake returning to its burrow when he manages to lose Ram in the crowd, and when he's captured and tortured he manages to regain his freedom in part by catching a banded krait snake and siccing it on Ram.
- Hidden Depths: Lacchu is clearly less savvy in the ways of the big city than most, but as a part of Bheem's hunting party, he's skilled enough to identify and catch a venomous snake with one hand. Without even looking.
- Too Dumb to Live: Lacchu unquestioningly trusting Ram's cover as a blood-thirsty revolutionary, when all the more seasoned activists clearly distrust him. He gets tortured for this lapse in judgement.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The fact that Lacchu was captured and tortured by Raju might have been the one thing that ignites actual antagonism between him and Bheem - instead Lacchu just disappears from the plot.
Sita
Sita
Played by: Alia Bhatt, Spandan Chaturvedi (child)
Dubbed by:note
Ram's fiancée.
- Guile Heroine: Has some elements of this, tricking the British soldiers into thinking there's a smallpox outbreak at a camp so they won't discover Bheem and the others.
- Hairstyle Inertia: The child version of Sita is easily identified by the fact that she shares the same looped braids her adult counterpart was introduced with in flashbacks (she's switched to a single huge braid when Bheem meets her).
- I Will Wait for You: She promised to wait for Ram to come back and help the rebel effort and has been doing so for years.
- Karmic Jackpot: She feeds and shelters Bheem, Malli, and their party while they're hiding from the British Raj despite the great risk to her. Thus, after she divulges the truth about Ram's infiltration into the British army, Bheem immediately goes to save him, which not only reunites Sita with her love, but ensures the rebels' mission.
- Ms. Exposition: She recounts Ram's backstory to an aghast Bheem (and the audience).
- My Girl Back Home: For her fiancé Ram, who has been away in Delhi pursuing his agenda in the imperial police without seeing her for years. She maintains faith that he will return successful.
Venkata
Alluri Venkatarama Raju
Played by: Ajay Devgn
Dubbed by: note
Ram's father and a former Indian soldier.
- Defector from Decadence: He was once part of the British Indian Army until witnessing the brutal stoning of an elderly village leader for manhandling a soldier due to Governor Scott refusing to "waste" bullets on him. A disgusted and horrified Venkata then abandoned his rank and stole some ammunition to train his own rebel army.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After being mortally wounded in the battle, Ram's father blew himself up with explosives to take down the British army invading his village. To add to the trauma, it was Ram himself who had to ignite said explosives by shooting his father in the back.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: It seems Ram took after his father; Venkata never missed a shot against any of the British forces either.
- Posthumous Character: Died before the events of the movie.
- Outliving One's Offspring: His younger son is killed by British gunfire moments before Venkata's sacrifice.
- Taking You with Me: Performed one of these to take out a bunch of British soldiers invading his home village.
- Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to discuss his character without revealing that Ram is secretly an undercover member of the rebellion against Governor Scott.
