Director Anurag Kashyap had liked Rao's performance in "Love Sex Aur Dhokha" and cast him in "Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2" (2012), a followup to his crime film "Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1". He played the supporting role of Shamshad Alam for which he visited Wasseypur to perfect his accent and character. The film was a critical and financial success. His subsequent role was that of independence activist Lokenath Bal in Bedabrata Pain's historical drama "Chittagong" (2012), which was based on the Chittagong armoury raid. His final release of the year was Reema Kagti's suspense thriller "", where he played a cop. The film, starring Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor, had worldwide earnings of over ₹1.74 billion (US$24 million) to emerge as the year's eighth highest-grossing Hindi film. Rajeev Masand commented that in just one scene Rao shows "what a good actor can bring even to a small part".