After much anticipation and hype, the trailer of Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone’s upcoming film, Fighter, was finally unveiled by the makers on Monday (January 15, 2024) at a grand launch event in Mumbai.
Apart from Roshan and Padukone, the film also stars Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover and Akshay Oberoi in important parts.
Directed by Siddharth Anand of War and Pathaan fame, Fighter is set against the backdrop of the Indian Air Force, with Roshan, Padukone, Kapoor, and others playing IAF officers.
The 3 minutes and 9 seconds long trailer confirms that Fighter is based on India’s lethal airstrike on Pakistan in 2019 after forces from the neighbouring country carried out a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, which resulted in the death of 40 Army men.
Hrithik Roshan threatens to turn Pakistn into IoP
While the trailer took off on a lighter note where the main focus of the team is to “bond with each other” in Anil Kapoor’s own words, things turn serious and murkier as Pakistan attacks India and the Indian Air Force wages an all-out war by entering the neighbouring country.
The war does not just stop there, and by the end of the trailer, Hrithik is seen mouthing dialogues like, “PoK ka matlab hai Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Tum logo ne occupy kiya hai, maalik hum hai”, (PoK stands for Pakistan occupied Kashmir. You guys have occupied it. We are the real owner) which are sure to attract hoots and whistles in theatres.
As he trades punches with his Pakistani counterpart, he adds, “Agar hum badtameezi pe utar aaye, toh pura Pakistan IoP bann jayega — India occupied Pakistan,” (If we start misbehaving, entire Pakistan will become Indian occupied Kashmir) echoing the sentiments of millions of Indians, and the makers have hit the nail right where it hurts.
The trailer also gave glimpses of the chemistry between the two leads, a blink-and-miss appearances of Karan Singh Grover, Akshay Oberoi, Ashutosh Rana, and Sanjeeda Sheikh, and ample ‘Jai Hind’ chants to send the audience in theatres roaring.
Overall, Fighter is laced with adequate doses of action, thrill, romance and catchy music, and to top it all, it has copious amounts of patriotism, the perfect recipe for a commercial potboiler.
Fighter is all set to hit the silver screens on January 25, with an intention to benefit from the long Republic Day weekend.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)