Action Unlimited

During a breathtaking action sequence, Salman Khan as Tiger virtually falls from the skies to save Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, and fans can’t get enough. Tiger promises Pathaan that he’ll be returning in a while for a big assignment and that he’ll need Pathaan’s assistance then in the standout sequence of SRK’s new film Pathaan, which practically brings the house down. The obvious allusion is to Salman Khan’s next, as of yet untitled, Tiger 3, and the prospect of SRK’s character Pathaan appearing in that movie excites fans of both superstars. With Pathaan Tiger Kabir – The YRF Spy-verse gets better and intense.

Add to that multiple mention of Kabir aka Hrithik Roshan adds fuel to skyrocketting expectations. There is more evidence in SRK’s most recent movie that Yash Raj Films is unmistakably expanding the possibilities for a Bollywood universe of spy thrillers. The agent Kabir played by Hrithik Roshan in the studio’s blockbuster War from 2019 is mentioned numerous times. In Pathaan, Ashutosh Rana reprises his portrayal of his desi Nick Fury persona from War, where he played RAW handler Colonel Luthra. A discussion also brings up Zoya from the Tiger series starring Katrina Kaif.

It would seem like a profitable idea for YRF and in line with the widespread craze of combining two or more movies or movie franchises to create a fictional cinematic universe if the spy-verse flaunted the crème of Bollywood. The spy-verse would have space to add many more characters and, in turn, more marketable stars. An unavoidable “Thanos” for all of these Bollywood superheroes in a pop patriotic setting would be terrorism, which always serves as justification for VFX-heavy action extravaganzas and never fails to heighten audience fervour if marketed in the proper way.

Collection Record Breaking

For YRF, the box office success of these movies has been favourable thus far. Salman Khan’s 2012 release of his first Tiger adventure, Ek Tha Tiger, brought in over Rs 334 crore globally. Tiger Zinda Hai, the sequel of the movie, earned over Rs 564 crore globally in 2017. With a worldwide gross of Rs 475.5 crore, the Hrithik Roshan-starring movie War was the largest Bollywood release of 2019. After earning more than Rs 250 crore on its opening weekend, Pathaan is expected to surpass Rs 400 crore in its second week. When you add in the 200 cr OTT purchase, Pathaan is likely to reach the 600 cr level.

On its first day, War made 53.35 crore in revenue. The Hindi film’s opening day take is the highest ever. It brought in 24.35 crore on the second day and 22.45 crore on the third, bringing its total revenue to 100.15 crore. As the movie War crosses the $100 million mark at the box office, it has already set six new milestones. In the first three days after its release, the movie joined the 100 Crore Club. The movie made 166.25 crore over its prolonged opening weekend, which is the most of any Bollywood film released in 2019 so far. 

The movie became the fastest Bollywood film of 2019 to accomplish the mark after grossing over 200 crore in its first week. With a gross of 378.46 billion rupees from India and movie earned $475.50 crore globally, including 97.04 crore from internationally, making it the highest-grossing Indian movie of 2019. It also re-established Hrithik Roshan as a star since it was his long awauited hit after a series of flops.

Story Captivating

The truth is that all of Bollywood’s deshbhakt secret agents, including Pathaan, Tiger, and Kabir, have to be written to complement their respective superstars’ personalities and styles. For instance, Hrithik Roshan’s superspy Kabir must be a dashing machoman who can dance, like practically all of his other parts, and Salman Khan’s Tiger is entirely designed to match the actor’s usual deadpan film demeanour. After the first few films in the spy-verse, YRF writers may find themselves lacking in new ideas.

The issue of content is another one. Bollywood espionage saga screenplays nearly always focus on two themes: cross-border terrorism coming from Pakistan and a nefarious plot to devastate our nation. While fans will always be interested in these topics, they no longer work without a fresh spin. Pathaan really uses both of these concepts as a foundation for its thin plot, which manages to remain predictable despite the fast-moving nature of the story. The movie has gained attention because SRK makes a comeback in a grandiose action package, not because of a creative plot.

In actuality, even our espionage movies have begun to resemble one another. The obvious explanation in the case of Pathaan is that Siddharth Anand, the director of War, is in charge of the project. But at that point, War also resembled a variety of Hollywood spy thrillers. An excessive amount of elements from Mission: Impossible, the James Bond movies, and Jason Bourne are added to the standard Bollywood espionage movie treatment.

Future Bright

The benefit for YRF is that Bollywood fans have become more accepting of the multiverse idea over time, especially since the Hollywood comic-verse, notably the MCU, gained a large audience here in dubbed languages. As a box office experiment, the espionage universe would seem to be well timed since at this point, audiences are ready for this kind of crossover franchise. 

More or less, It’s going to be an interesting decade where we will see production houses in India fighting each other to create Sequals, Prequals and cross charector movies which was never done Pre 2018 era. This is an interesting time for scriptwriters and story tellers to include and evolve their thought process. whatever said and done, this era will be a bonanza for the viewers.

Also Read : Tiger Soars High On Pathaan’s Success

Photo Credit : YRF Films