Thugs of Hindostan trailer was shared by Aamir Khan on Thursday, after a week of motion posters teasing the looks of film’s principal cast — Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Amitabh Bachchan and Fatima Sana Shaikh. The trailer launch of Yash Raj Films’ most ambitious film also coincides with Yash Chopra’s birth anniversary today.

The trailer takes us back to 1795 AD; British East India Company is the ascendant power but giving them stiff challenge is a band of thugs. The British have their guns and firepower, while this group of Indians, led by Amitabh’s character Khudabaksh (who is reverentially called Azaad by his followers) with Fatima (called Zafira) as his trusted lieutenant.

In comes a con man, Aamir’s Firangi Mallah, an unscrupulous man, with no morals whatsoever. He comes with a reputation and the company officials are keen on winning this battle with the thugs, through fair or foul means, and are willing to hire this crook, if he gets them the prized catch -- Azaad. The over 3.5-minute trailer introduces us to all the principle characters and their motives. The most noticeable being Firangi Mallah, who begins by two-timing both sides of the divide but towards the end of the trailer, seems to switch sides. Katrina makes a fleeting appearance in the clip.

The movie is based on a novel called Confessions of a Thug by Philip Meadows Taylor and is set in the 1830s, many years before the Revolt of 1857 (variously called India’s First War of Independence, Sepoy Mutiny and one that marked the formal end of the Mughal era in India). Among the many who opposed the British were thugs (a word that has gained currency in English from the Hindi word ‘thug’ meaning a con). From the posters, we get a sense that each of the men and women, did not live by the rule book but nonetheless took on a bigger bully and fought them in water as well on land.

Thugs of Hindostan releases November 8 to coincide with the Diwali weekend. It will also be dubbed in Tamil and Telugu. Watch Thugs of Hindostan trailer here: