Karan falls in love with Bulbul, and tells her that he always wanted to start his own business however his father Sajjan Kapoor wants him to do an MBA first. On the other hand, Bulbul confesses that she wants to be a supermodel, and advises Karan that he does not need a large amount of money to start a business, but a big "idea".
Back in India, Sajjan has a heart attack. Karan's mother Maya pawns her jewelry in order to arrange money for better medical facilities, and an AC room at the hospital as his insurance could only afford a small room with a fan. This leaves Karan heart-broken, and he immediately decides to get rich by any means. He starts his own business venture along with his friends. He comes up with an idea for smuggling branded Reebok shoes into India, without any customs charges. For this, they have to separate the consignment into two-halves, one half with only left shoes in Calcutta and the other half with only right shoes in Madras. At both places, the buyer will refuse to receive the consignment, hence the entire consignment will be confiscated.The confiscated consignment will then be auctioned to which Chandu (in Calcutta) and Karan (in Madras) will buy the entire consignment, posing as scrap dealers. Once they pair the right pair shoes with the left pair shoes, the zero-valued product comes into a full value, which they sell at any price without any customs charges. They name their venture "Friends and Company" and proceed to make a large fortune with it.
Zing and Chandu get into an argument because Zing abuses Linda. Karan and Zing get into an argument about Zing's excessive drinking. Zing leaves and opens his own bar. Bulbul leaves when she finds out that Karan has married another woman. Chandu marries Linda and quits the company to start a clean video store business alongside her. Alone and heartbroken, Karan visits India and secretly attends a function where Sajjan is being honored for his years of service to his company. Upon seeing this, he realizes his mistake and returns to America, where he is arrested and is jailed for six months. He is bailed out by Bulbul, Zing and Chandu. Bulbul gives up Zing's, Chandu's and her share of profits from what they earned in the company.
Karan starts working with his uncle Jazz. One day, Karan coincidentally meets Bulbul, who is revealed to be pregnant with his child and they both reconcile. At Uncle Jazz's office, Karan finds out that his uncle's entire consignment of imported shirts from Madras has been rejected due to the color of the shirt changing after being washed, causing Jazz company's share fall down to 30%.Karan sees an opportunity and comes up with another idea and patches up with Zing, Chandu and his family to start another venture.
The public goes crazy over this new shirt, due to which Karan receives another order, this time for a much larger number of shirts. The shares of Jazz's company skyrocket as the public buy many more shirts, hence recovering his Uncle Jazz's loss. Karan, Zing, Chandu, and Bulbul are now partners with Jazz in "Friends and Company", and grow it into a public limited company. Now with his wife, son, friends and having made his father proud, Karan is finally content with his genuine and happy life.
Parmeet Sethi wrote the script for the film with dialogues in only six days. The four main characters are all based on real-life people. Parmeet reveals that he was tired of television and was keen on pursuing film direction.[3] Filming locations for the film included New York, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Bangkok, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.
The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it a rating of 3 out of 5, saying; "On the whole, Badmaash Company is a watchable experience for various reasons, the prime reason being it offers solid entertainment, but doesn't insult your intelligence."[4] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 1.5 out of 5 and claimed it to be "outrageously silly".[5] Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes gave the film 3.5 out of 5 saying "Badmaash Company is a good entertainer. Worth a watch!" and praising Shahid Kapoor.[6] Komal Nahta gave the film 2.5 out of 5, praising the performance of Kapoor and called Badmaash Company "an entertainer".[7] Sukanya Verma of rediff gave the film 2 out of 5 stars saying Sethi's directorial debut starts out with cocksure confidence and zing.[8]
Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and said, "Indeed, Badmaash Company does have a bunch of riveting scenes, although the story does follow a very predictable line of crime and punishment/repentance."[9] DNA gave the film 2.5 out of 5 saying, "This company is worth keeping."[10] Anupama Chopra of NDTV called it a "staggeringly tedious film" while Raja Sen of Rediff said, "There's not a single scene in the film that actually works". Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times criticized the film as half-written; he only liked the film until the interval and gave it 2 out of 5.[11] The film received an aggregate rating of 4/10 at ReviewGang.[12]
"The bell actually rang three years back when I was sure that I will direct a film. This is the second script that I have written," Parmeet told IANS.
"Yash Raj Films (YRF) had approved my first script too, but we couldn't make it. I waited for one and a half years, but the film didn't take off and I was frustrated. I was in a dilemma whether to stick to my plans to direct a film or go back to acting. Then in frustration, I wrote this script," he added.
"I had five ideas with me out of which two were most compelling. I wanted to write another script before this but that required research work in Canada, which would have taken six months. I didn't have the money. I didn't have the time. So I chose this one because I enjoy the genre very much. I think no one has done a full-on con film intelligently," the actor-turned director said.
Set in the 1990s, "Badmaash Company" is about four young friends - Shahid, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das and Meiyang Chang - from middle-class Mumbai who get together to start a company. Their business is an instant hit because they find a way to beat the system by doing all the wrong things in a right way.
The critics have praised the film despite it being too long.
"First, I worked out the whole con thing in my head, then I put it down on paper as script and then wrote dialogues. There are four con jobs in the film and I had to come up with interesting ideas each time to make it as believable as possible," said Parmeet.
To get the right feel of the 1990s, he shot some scenes in Hyderabad.
"The cars, the houses and other locations that we shot in Mumbai, I was particular about everything because I wanted to bring the essence of the 1990s. I actually went to Hyderabad to shoot the airport scene. Mumbai airport of today is very, very modern. But the Hyderabad airport still looks like the old Mumbai airport," he said.
The director, who worked with freshers like Vir and Chang, says he signed Anushka Sharma on Aditya Chopra's recommendation.
"I wanted some very fresh faces and Vir and Chang were the perfect choice. I didn't want to have predictable faces. Anushka was Adi's recommendation. I didn't know her personally. I was a little doubtful, but Adi assured me that I'll like her once we meet," he said.
Parmeet, who featured in Aditya's directorial debut "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995), says he was sceptical while approaching YRF to produce the film.
"I spoke over phone and asked for an appointment with Adi and I got it. That's all I did. In the last 15 years I hardly met Adi as he hardly socialises...everyone knows that. I was hoping he hadn't forgotten me. But he not only gave me the appointment but gave me respect and was pleasantly surprised by my script," he said.
Parmeet now wants to be behind the camera and make more films but doesn't rule out the possibility of getting back to acting.
"I haven't said good bye to anything. I don't want to be cocky about life. But as of now it's only direction for me. I think this is my main career now."