Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year was released on 11 December 2009, grossing ₹33.65 crore worldwide, thus emerging as a commercial failure at the box office. However, the film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with praise for its novel concept, story and cast performances, with major praise for Kapoor's performance; however its screenplay and pacing received criticism.
Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor), a B. Com. graduate with approximately 39 percent marks, becomes a salesman with a big corporate computer assembly and service company, AYS, headed by MD Sunil Puri (Manish Chaudhari). Despite initial objections from sales head Nitin Rathore, Harpreet is taken in by Puri and begins learning the tricks of the sales trade from Nitin. He is shown to live alone with his widowed grandfather P.S. Bedi (Prem Chopra) and a circle that comprises his best friends Sai Ram (Amol Parashar), the lawyer son of an IAS officer who wants Harpreet to pursue an MBA, and Aparna "Appy" Singh (Debi Dutta), a designer. Later, he is sent to his first major field visit, where manager S.P. Chaudhary (Rajesh Jais) asks for a kickback. Disgruntled due to his honest nature, he drops a letter in the complaint box nearby, accusing Chaudhary. However, when Nitin and Puri strongly condemn his actions and threaten to fire him as Chaudhary is a huge client, he feels humiliated and is isolated by the other salespersons, who are enraged after their targets are raised due to Harpreet's actions; they throw paper airplanes onto him as an insult.
Harpreet is unable to do anything, but after the appointment of a new senior manager, he is able to take software operator Girish "Giri" Reddy (D. Santosh) and receptionist Koena Shaikh (Gauahar Khan) into confidence. Koena gives him the lead to a customer, Sherena Khanna (Shazahn Padamsee), who lives within his previously assigned "sales zone." A fashion entrepreneur living with her colleague Ayesha, she is initially disappointed by Harpreet's pitch but calms him down, and he agrees to help her. Quite soon, he realizes that sales success depends on customer satisfaction, meaning that bribery will not be necessary to secure contracts. After making concessions to Sherena, he decides to found a new enterprise, Rocket Sales Corporation, from within AYS, naming it after the paper airplanes thrown at him. With this, he decides to make Giri and Koena partners in the venture.
Rocket Sales Corporation is being managed from within the AYS offices, with Giri later revealing that the tea server, Chotelal Mishra, has a knack for assembling computer parts; they decide to make him an equal partner too. Usually working at night, they are later discovered by Nitin, who is rather reluctantly admitted into the venture and becomes a partner; in the process, he gradually abandons some of the typical AYS tricks he usually played, including bribes. Meanwhile, with Puri's humiliation of him in Chaudhary's presence still fresh in his mind, Harpreet decides to lock horns with Puri, seeking to avenge his humiliation.
The five-member company targets previous clients of AYS, who were irritated with AYS's attitude, and soon enjoys a strong client reputation. The company soon becomes successful because of its dedication to excellent customer service. Although it does not make much profit, Rocket Sales Corporation is able to make a huge difference. AYS's sales start decreasing as many of the clients cancel their orders and place orders at Rocket Sales, which offers them better services. Harpreet starts a relationship with Sherena in the process.
Enraged over this success, as he coaxes Nitin to discover the truth in exchange for a promotion to the post of Vice President, Puri moves quickly to attempt to contact the MD of Rocket Sales Corporation and, in a phone conversation, attempts to entice him to sell Rocket Sales Corporation to AYS, little realizing it is Harpreet, who not only rejects Puri's offer but claims that Rocket Sales Corporation will buy AYS Computers. Afraid of Puri's attempts, Harpreet's partners have a discussion and move their headquarters to Sherena's house, making her a partner in the process. After multiple failed attempts at locating the Rocket Sales Corporation office, Puri decides to call the number on Rocket Sales Corporation's brochures, and the phone at the AYS reception desk begins to ring. Realizing the truth when he sees Giri picking up, he walks in on the team.
After thoroughly insulting him and firing both him and his partners, Puri has Harpreet sign a contract, handing over Rocket Sales to him for a final compensation of ₹1. Despite the elimination of potential competition from Harpreet, who is in return barred from conducting any computer assembly and service business for a period of 3 years, AYS is unable to maintain Rocket Sales' commitment to customer satisfaction because of its cold and greedy personnel. Seeing his downfall in purchasing Rocket Sales, Puri visits Harpreet at his new job at Croma, an electronics store, and returns the contract to Harpreet in return for ₹1. He also tells him never to become a businessman again because he will fail again. However, this is not intended as an insult but rather as a compliment; he implies that what made Harpreet so successful was his eschewing of 'normal' business practices such as kickbacks, false advertisements, and low wages.
As the story ends, it shows an interviewee visiting the Rocket Sales Corporation office building. The firm is implied to be very successful, with P.S. Bedi joining in as the accounts manager; it shows the former AYS employees, all partners of the business, and finally closes with Harpreet smiling genially at a desk, showing that in the long run, honesty and hard work are sound business practices.
Akshat Kapil in a special appearance as Rocket Sales Corporation interviewee
Critical reception
Film critic Rachel Saltz of New York Times called it "a smart, focused Bollywood movie" and commended Ranbir Kapoor for "turning in a skillfully understated performance"[3] while Anupama Chopra in her NDTV review gave it 3 out 5 stars.[4]
Nikhat Kazmi in The Times of India gave 3 stars out 5.[5] While The Economic Times review gave it a 4 stars out of 5 and called it, "one of the most rocking films of the year".[6] An Outlook review by Namrata Joshi gave it 3 out of 5 stars, saying that the film "Marks a continuum and a departure from the middle-class cinema of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee and Sai Paranjape."[7]Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.[8]
Many of the serial entrepreneurs called it "a learning-curve Bollywood movie for upcoming entrepreneurs", focusing on taking risks and building relationships with clients.
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