Maalik is a 1972 Indian Hindi-language spiritual drama film directed by A. Bhimsingh. The film stars Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore. Ashok Kumar played a special appearance. It is a loose remake of Tamil film Thunaivan. It was the second box office flop in the career of Rajesh Khanna since the beginning of his 17 consecutive hits from 1969 to 1971. The film was critically acclaimed. There were other films of Khanna which were running well at the box office, such as Mere Jeevan Saathi, Apna Desh, Amar Prem and Shehzada in the same year, due to which this spiritual film was not screened by in many theatres by distributors, due to which producers suffered losses.

Badnam Farishte in 1971 was the first film of Khanna to flop at the box office since his consecutive 17 hits from 1969. Before the release of Maalik, Khanna had 9 more hits in the year 1972. In 1972, Khanna acted in 10 releases of which 9 became successful. He did a guest appearance in a Telugu movie called Bangaru Babu, directed by V.B. Rajendra Prasad in 1973. His Hindi films Dushman, Amar Prem, Apna Desh and Mere Jeevan Saathi, together earned more than Rs.5 crore. His other films of 1972 such as Dil Daulat Duniya, Bawarchi, Joroo Ka Ghulam and Shehzada earned more than Rs.4.5 crores. His last hit in year 1972 was Anuraag.