In India in the 1920s, Superintendent Stafford (Harry Andrews) of the United Provinces Police has his men arrest the entire Bhanta tribe on vague allegations of poaching and theft in British India.
Their leader, Sultan (Yul Brynner), father of young son Munnu (Antoñito Ruiz), whose wife Tara (Imogen Hassall), is expecting their second child, is also arrested and held in a cell with criminals in Fort Najibabad.
Sultan, Tara, and many others manage to break out, but on the long ride to safety, Tara dies. Sultan is heartbroken, but his immediate objective is the safety of his little band.
Sultan and his men decide to revolt against the oppressive British, who create a mobile unit led by Officer Freddy Young (Trevor Howard) to counter this revolt, announcing a reward of Rs.500.00. But Sultan manages to elude them.
Amidst clashes between Freddy and Stafford – and the entry of Stafford’s daughter, Jane (Charlotte Rampling) – it is made known that Sultan’s tribe will be transported by train to a compound in Delhi. This news reaches Sultan, and he prepares to attack the train and free his people, little knowing the trap into which he and his men will soon be walking.
The old railway seen in this movie was also used in the movies North West Frontier (1959), Seven Guns for the MacGregors (1966) and Red Sun (1971).
Sultan
Yul Brynner
Freddy Young
Trevor Howard
Superintendent Stafford
Harry Andrews
Gungaram
Andrew Keir
Jane Stafford
Charlotte Rampling
Champa
Virginia North
McDougal
Laurence Naismith
Governor
Maurice Denham
Tara
Imogen Hassall
Jamadar
Paul Hardwick
Munnu
Antoñito Ruiz
Gyan Singh
David Sumner
Pahelwan
Rafiq Anwar
Ram Chand
George Pastell
Abdul
Shivendra Sinha
Devi
Zohra Sehgal
Nathu
Norman Florence
Babu
Kurt Christian
Akbar
Dino Shafeek
Moti
Terry Yorke
Sentry
Tommy Reeves
Colonel
Patrick Newell
Crabbe
Jeremy Lloyd
Major
Terence Alexander
Major’s Wife
Marianne Stone
Hardwicke
Edward Fox
High Priest
Bakshi Prem
Kamala
Toni Kanal
Bhim
Ramón Serrano
Sandhu
Ben Tatar
Prem
Aldo Sambrell
Dancing Girls
Monisha Bose
Naseem Khan
Shymala Devi
Shirley Sen Gupta
Jamila Massey
Director
Ken Annakin