Ram Jaane is a 1995 Indian Hindi action thriller film directed by Rajiv Mehra about an unnamed boy who grows up to become a gangster. He uses the name Ram Jaane after meeting with a priest who in response to the boy asking what his real name was, said "Ram Jaane". The film borrows its premise from the 1938 Hollywood gangster movie Angels with Dirty Faces. It is the fourth time Shah Rukh Khan played a negative role after Baazigar, Darr and Anjaam. Ram Jaane was released to a positive reception from audiences and was a commercial success. Shah Rukh Khan has bought the rights to this film under his banner, Red Chillies Entertainment. This was the second Rajiv Mehra film to feature Shah Rukh Khan after Chamatkar, in 1992; that film was an average box office success, but Ram Jaane proved to be a hit.

Angels with Dirty Faces is a 1938 American crime drama film directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Brothers. It stars James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, The Dead End Kids, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, and George Bancroft. The screenplay was written by John Wexley and Warren Duff based on the story by Rowland Brown. The film chronicles the relationship of the notorious gangster William "Rocky" Sullivan with his childhood friend and now-priest Father Jerry Connolly. After spending three years in prison for armed robbery, Rocky intends to collect $100,000 from his co-conspirator Jim Frazier, a mob lawyer. All the while, Father Connolly tries to prevent a group of youths from falling under Rocky's influence.