Hrithik Roshan & Jr NTR in War 2: Pan-India casting could boost Bollywood’s market at home and abroad

It is being deemed Indian mainstream cinema’s biggest casting coup in a while. Although the announcement is yet to be officially confirmed by the production house at the time of publishing, Yash Raj Films are all set to bring together Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR in War 2. Buzz around the news break has excited fans of Bollywood and South Indian cinema alike. The War films belong to YRF’s spy universe, which has spawned money spinners as Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan and Salman Khan’s Tiger franchise, and Telugu superstar Jr NTR’s entry into the zone could throw open new scope for content as well as commerce.

Look at the bigger picture here beyond Hrithik, Jr NTR, _War 2_ and YRF, at the trend that such a casting could have kickstarted. Bollywood has been battered by flops in the post-Covid lockdown scenario, which is what makes the War 2 announcement significant. Among immediate conjectures that started doing the social media rounds was whether such pan-India casting could take Hindi cinema’s prospects to a higher, global scale. It is a conversation that has excited fans ever since the news gained credence over the past 24 hours or so after, among other regular information sources, trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted on his blue-tick handle: “IT’S OFFICIAL… HRITHIK - JR NTR IN ‘WAR 2’… #YRF pulls off a casting coup… #HrithikRoshan and #JrNTR will share screen space for the first time in #War2… #AyanMukerji directs. #YRFSpyUniversepic.”

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IT’S OFFICIAL… HRITHIK - JR NTR IN ‘WAR 2’… #YRF pulls off a casting coup… #HrithikRoshan and #JrNTR will share screen space for the first time in #War2… #AyanMukerji directs. #YRFSpyUniverse pic.twitter.com/rGu8Z3Nzs7

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) April 5, 2023

The fact is by bringing together superstars from across India in a big production, filmmakers can actually lure a wider fan base into the audis at a time Indian exhibitors are struggling to sell tickets. YRF might have just shown the new way to do business in the time of OTT abundance — a challenge that currently poses problems for the film trade not just in India but globally, too. Casting superstars from North and South India can perhaps boost domestic collections, but can it draw the interest of international audiences towards Indian mainstream films?

The answer, for War 2 and YRF at least, is yes. It is easy to see how the banner has scored with the War 2 casting. Although the Oscar win for _RRR_ was technically about the _Naatu Naatu_ song, Jr NTR seems to have endeared himself to audiences in the West with his dancing skills in the music video of the number. Viewers all over, including in the NRI market, seem to have rediscovered the actor all over again. For YRF, a film that pairs Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik with Jr NTR at a time when RRR still rides its global wave of popularity, automatically amps its commercial worth, including in overseas markets.

In a broader sense, beyond War 2 the key to maximising benefits of a pan-India casting on an international scale would depend on whether Bollywood has the ambition to venture beyond home turf with such films. An industry that basically survives by looking for saleable fads than any sort of serious planning is normally content with big numbers in the domestic market. Except for a brief phase when, mainly spurred by the success of Shah Rukh Khan’s romantic hits such as _Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge_, there has hardly been a methodical attempt on the industry’s part to foray markets outside India.

Interestingly, the SRK-toplined romantic hits of the past and the action entertainers of YRF’s current spy universe have one thing in common. Despite belonging to different genres, both types of films are driven by the spirit of India and Indianism. The nineties brand of nationalism that films such as DDLJ took to the diaspora tugged at the NRI heartstrings by romancing the homeland. The new breed typified by Pathaan, War or the Tiger films look at India in the context of threats to national security, which is equally of concern to Indians at home and abroad. Pairing superstars from the North and the South can render authenticity to pan-India characterisation in such scripts.

The advantage in all this is also that the market which opens up for a biggie as War 2 in India and abroad becomes more than four-folds. Hindi filmmakers have for long been trying to dub their products into Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada to max out box office benefits in domestic as well as overseas markets. The impact, however, has been limited. At the end of its first week, for instance, when Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan had amassed a near-300 crore collection in India, the film’s intake from dubbed Tamil and Telugu prints stood at a mere Rs 10 crore. The hike in numbers for such big productions could be mindboggling if such films are a collaboration between superstars of different states.

There have been efforts in the past, of course, In their heydays, Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth collaborated on films such as Andhaa Kaanoon and Hum. The Big B worked with Kamal Haasan in Geraftaar, and Nagarjuna in Khuda Gawah. Superstars from the South worked with several top Bollywood stars of the era in the eighties including Mithun Chakraborty, Jeetendra and Dharmendra, too. These, though, were one-off endeavours. An industry that rarely ever plans its moves never tried consolidating the power of such combined stardom for the domestic or foreign market. This time it could be different. The age of inclusivity makes this a great time for big projects with pan-India casting to explore the world market, because the West now looks more closely at India and every facet of its culture, including cinema.

The flavour of India currently finds a lot of footage in foreign projects across screens big and small, from Ms Marvel to Murder Mystery 2. When the Russo Brothers of the Avengers fame executive-produce Priyanka Chopra’s upcoming sci-fi series _Citadel_, fans are thrilled, though not necessarily surprised anymore. Clearly, there are spaces opening up for Indian cinematic entertainment in western markets more than ever. Filling up these spaces with products that flaunt top names from film industries across India and are dubbed in multiple languages could be the way to go, at a time when traditional film-selling strategies struggle at the box office.

Vinayak Chakravorty is a critic, columnist and journalist who loves to write on popular culture

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