# Tiger Zinda Hai

Tiger Zinda Hai (transl. Tiger Lives) is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar based on a story by Zafar and Neelesh Misra. Produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films, it serves as a sequel to Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and is the second instalment in the YRF Spy Universe, and stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif reprising their roles from the predecessor. Almost eight years since the events of Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger and Zoya find themselves pulled out of hiding to save nurses held hostage by the ISC, a terrorist organisation based in Iraq.
A sequel was conceived following the success of Ek Tha Tiger, but faced several delays after Kabir Khan, who scripted and helmed the 2012 original, refused to return for a sequel. Zafar was subsequently hired as the writer and director; Misra, who had written the script for Ek Tha Tiger alongside Khan, contributed to the story, which is inspired from the 2014 abduction of Indian nurses by ISIL. Production begun for the film in 2016, and filming was concluded by 2017. Filming locations include Abu Dhabi, Austria, Greece, and Morocco. Made on a budget of ₹120−130 crore (US$−19,962,652.64), the film was one of the most expensive Hindi films ever made at time of its release.
Tiger Zinda Hai was theatrically released worldwide by Yash Raj Films on 22 December 2017. The film received positive reviews from critics.
Similar to its predecessor, the film set numerous box-office records during its theatrical run, grossing over ₹565 crore (US$86.76 million) worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing Indian film of 2017. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, the film won for Best Action.

## Plot

In 2019, almost 8 years after the events of Ek Tha Tiger, an American journalist is killed by the ISC, a terrorist organisation, in Iraq, while attempting to report their recent activities to the CIA. During a rally in Ikrit, their leader, Abu Usman, is shot by the Iraqi Army and is taken to the local hospital, which also serves as a training center for Indian and Pakistani nurses. Usman orders a heightened ISC presence around him for security, causing the CIA to prepare an airstrike on the hospital. During this, Maria, an Indian nurse, secretly calls the Indian Ambassador to Iraq and informs him about Indian and Pakistani nurses being held hostage; the CIA tells RAW chief Shenoy that he has seven days to rescue the nurses before the airstrike is ordered.
Avinash Singh "Tiger" Rathore and Zoya Nazar, now married with a son Junior, who lives in hiding in Innsbruck. Shenoy and Karan Rao, a RAW agent, locate and inform Tiger and Zoya about the hostages. Despite initial reluctance, Tiger accepts after Zoya's insistence. Tiger goes to Syria with his select team of RAW agents: Azaan, an expert sniper, Namit, a bomb disposal expert and a hacker named Rakesh. They travel to Iraq and pose as illegal migrant workers for an oil refinery run by Tohbaan, an Indian sympathiser to the ISC and Amir Baghdawi, Usman's second-in-command. Tiger meets his handler named Pawan in Ikrit to gather supplies, but they are forced to rescue Hassan, a child suicide bomber sent by Usman.
Pawan is shot by the ISC in the ensuing fallout and Tiger narrowly escapes with the unexpected arrival of Zoya. The couple decides that ISI and RAW should work together to save the nurses. Later that night, Tiger and his team set a controlled explosion in the refinery and fake burns so they are taken to the hospital. Tiger learns that Tohbaan is actually Firdaus, an undercover RAW agent, tasked by Shenoy to spy on Tiger and his team. Tiger and Zoya agree to simultaneous, coordinated attacks against the ISC. Zoya goes undercover and is eventually recruited by Baghdawi, who keeps female slaves. On the day of the airstrike, Zoya manages to kill Baghdawi. At the hospital, Rakesh poisons food the migrant workers are tasked to cook for the ISC.
Tiger's crew eventually succeeds in eliminating the majority of the ISC armies, but Azaan dies in the conflict. Tiger finds Zoya captured by Usman in the boiler room and surrenders. Tiger is initially tortured but stabs Usman (who manages to escape) and tries to free Zoya while the nurses are rescued by RAW and ISI. Firdaus eventually kills Usman as the hospital is blown up in the American airstrike. A year later on 15 August 2020 Shenoy is called by Tiger from Greece. Having adopted Hassan, Tiger informs him that his family has returned to hiding, knowing that RAW and ISI would not leave them in peace. However, Tiger assures Shenoy that he will be there to serve his country.

## Cast

* Salman Khan as Avinash "Tiger" Singh Rathore / Manish Chandra (fake), a former RAW agent in hiding with his wife, Zoya
* Katrina Kaif as Zoya Nazar Jung, an ISI agent in hiding with her husband, Tiger
* Sajjad Delafrooz as Abu Usman, the leader of the ISC, an Iraqi terrorist group
* Girish Karnad as Ajit Shenoy, the chief of RAW
* Paresh Rawal as Firdaus, an undercover RAW agent from Saharanpur, UP posing as an ISC sympathiser, Tohbaan
* Kumud Mishra as Rakesh Prasad Chaurasia, a hacker for RAW
* Angad Bedi as Captain Namit Khanna, a RAW agent who is a bomb disposal expert
* Paresh Pahuja as Major Azaan Akbar, a sniper for RAW (from the Ghatak Force)
* Anant Vidhaat Sharma as Karan Rao, Shenoy's assistant in RAW
* Gavie Chahal as Captain Abrar Sheikh, an ISI agent
* Danish Bhatt as Captain Javed Baig, an ISI agent
* Anupriya Goenka as Poorna, a hostage nurse
* Neha Hinge as Maria, a hostage nurse
* Kashmira Irani as Sana, a hostage nurse
* Nawab Shah as Pawan, an undercover RAW agent and Tiger's handler in Iraq
* Sal Yusuf as Amir Al-Baghdawi, an ISC member and Usman's second-in-command
* Sartaaj Kakkar as Junior, Tiger and Zoya's son
* Jineet Rath as Hassan Ali, Tiger's adopted son from Iraq
* Ivan Rodrigues as Ambassador of India to Iraq
* Siddhartha Basu as Indian External Affairs Minister
* Tyler Gowardhan as James Forward
* Steve Lorrigan as Adam Kerry, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency

## Production

Filming took place in Abu Dhabi, Austria, Greece and Morocco. The last song of the movie was shot in the Aegean island of Naxos, Greece in October 2017. Iranian actor Sajjad Delafrooz was roped in to play the role of Abu Usman, leader of terrorist organisation ISC. Sajjad Delafrooz had worked in the 2015 Hindi film Baby.
The film's budget was reportedly ₹120−130crore ($18.43 million).

## Marketing and release

The film's trailer was released on 6 November 2017. Within 24 hours, it broke many records for Hindi film trailers on YouTube, with more than 29 million views, 480 thousand likes and 250 thousand shares. On 11 November, it became the most liked film trailer on YouTube with 700 thousand likes, surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) then. The record was later surpassed by the trailer of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) with about 2 million likes.
The film was released on 22 December 2017 worldwide. The film received a U/A certificate from Central Board of Film Certification. Despite having a song featuring Pakistani singer Atif Aslam, the film has not been given No-Objection Certificate by Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan, stating the reason as was said for Ek Tha Tiger that "The image of Pakistan and its law enforcement agencies" have been compromised.
Tiger Zinda Hai was in controversy on its release and faced protests from the Valmiki community, when Salman Khan allegedly made a casteist slur, where he compared his dancing skills to a sanitation worker, "or "bhangi" in a dance show. Shilpa Shetty also laughed along with him, and said that she also looked like one. Valmiki group is made up of a cluster of Dalit communities — a few of whom are Bhangi, Mehtar, Chuhra, Lal Beghi and Halalkhor. Valmiki community filed a legal case against both actors for hurting their sentiments.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also unsuccessfully protested urging Mumbai multiplexes to promote Marathi film Deva instead of Tiger Zinda Hai. Their leaders raised issue about the loss of screens to Marathi films like Deva and Ek Atrangi which released alongside.

## Reception
### Critical response

Tiger Zinda Hai opened to mostly positive reviews. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of 14 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10.
Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "On the whole, TIGER ZINDA HAI is a high-octane masala entertainer that stays true to its genre and delivers what it promises: King-sized entertainment. At the box office, the audiences will give the film an epic ‘swagat’ as it is bound to entertain them thoroughly. This one is a SURE SHOT BLOCKBUSTER and nothing can stop it from setting new records." Umesh Punwani of Koimoi gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Katrina Kaif is brilliant! She has very few dialogues, and no, that's not the reason she's good. Working amazingly well with her expressions, she has turned into an athlete for this one. Performing a few major action sequences, she is flawless."
Aarti Jhurani of The National gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "While logic is not a very important factor in Khan's films, emotions certainly are, and the director made sure to hit all the soft spots – from patriotism to Indo-Pakistan bonding to a multitude of cheesy dialogues – which is a smart move, and sure to bring in both Indian and Pakistani audiences." Lasyapriya Sundaram of The Times of India gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film is visually stunning in parts and Salman Khan plays Tiger with roaring confidence and dialogues packed with punch. Of course, his fans get a true-blue Salman Khan moment when he bares his torso." Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "It may look like a Hollywood action thriller, but at its heart, Tiger Zinda Hai is an unabashed masala movie. The heady mixture of an international-looking action film and the regular tropes of Hindi cinema make it a pleasing watch."
Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Ali Abbas Zafar smoothly takes Ek Tha Tiger franchise ahead by telling a real story and inserting a whole lot of drama and thrill. The film also touches upon relationships between India and Pakistan but subtly. The biggest hiccup of the film is its length." Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film has some thrilling action, while logic and subtlety are sacrificed at the altar of spectacle and sentiment. Katrina gets some terrific action moments, and she executes them well, but make no mistake, the heavy lifting here is left to Salman Khan, and he's clearly up for the challenge."
Richa Barua of Asianet News gave 4.5 out of 5 stars and states that the film "keeps you glued to the seats." Raja Sen of NDTV gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Tiger Zinda Hai breaks for intermission at a point when most self-respecting action films would have rushed into the climax. Long before the finish eventually rolled around, I found myself wishing Tiger would croak just so I could make it out alive." Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "It's better for the filmmakers to set a character trajectory that matches the star's current image rather than basking in the glory of the past." Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating that both Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif delivered fun with equal parts swag, silliness and schmaltz. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Only once in a while, the film gives in and provides us with a killing which sobers us up, but very quickly it's back to the base, with Bhai taking over, and everyone including Nurse Poorna and Zoya making way for him. But you can see she enjoys kicking butt: you wish she had more to do." Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "Tiger Zinda Hai is fun in bits and spurts, but there isn’t enough buoyancy to make it a slam dunk."

### Box office
#### India

Tiger Zinda Hai made a new non-holiday record in India as it collected ₹34.1 crore nett on its first day. It went on to collect ₹35.30 crore nett gross on second day. The film recorded the second highest day of all time (after the third day of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion's Hindi-dub) on its third day with a nett of ₹45.53 crore and the highest ever for the Hindi film industry. With three-day nett collections of over ₹1.14 billion, Tiger Zinda Hai had the second highest opening weekend of all time (after Bahubali 2: The Conclusion) and the highest opening weekend of all time in the Hindi film industry. Tiger Zinda Hai netted Rs 154 crore in its first four days in India.

#### Other territories

Tiger Zinda Hai grossed $2 million in two days, $450,000 on day one in US/Canada and around £150,000 in the UK. The film grossed $7 million in its opening weekend in overseas, including $2,535,825 in US/Canada. The film grossed ₹190 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. In the United Kingdom, it grossed £1.8 million ($2.32 million) in 2017, making it the year's highest-grossing foreign-language film in the UK (above Baahubali 2 in second place).
As of 25 February 2018, the film has grossed US$87.32 million (₹569 crore) worldwide, including ₹434.82 crore (US$67.11 million) in India, and US$20.3 million (₹128.9 crore) overseas.

## Music

The music of the film is composed by Vishal–Shekhar while lyrics are penned by Irshad Kamil. The background score is composed by Julius Packiam. The first song of the film is titled as Swag Se Swagat which is sung by Vishal Dadlani and Neha Bhasin and produced by Meghdeep Bose released on 19 November 2017. It has become the most-liked Bollywood song on YouTube and the fastest Bollywood song to cross 100 million views on YouTube. The second song of the film, Dil Diyan Gallan, which is sung by Atif Aslam, was released by Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif at Big Boss Season 11 on 26 November 2017. The album was released on 7 December 2017 by YRF Music. The Arabic version of "Swag Se Swagat" was sung by Rabih Baroud and Brigitte Yaghi.
By 8 February 2018, the album had crossed 1 billion streams on music streaming platforms. As of 13 April 2019, songs from the album have over 1.5 billion views combined on YouTube, making it the most-streamed Bollywood soundtrack album on the platform.

## Accolades

| Date of Ceremony | Award | Category | Recipient(s) and nominee(s) | Result |
| 20 January 2018 | Filmfare Awards | Best Action | Tom Struthers | Won |
| 28 January 2018 | Mirchi Music Awards | Album of The Year | Vishal–Shekhar, Irshad Kamil | Nominated |
| 22 June 2018 | IIFA Awards | Best Cinematography | Marcin Laskawiec, Usc | Won |
| 22 June 2018 | IIFA Awards | Best Sound Design | Dileep Subramaniam, Ganesh Gangadharan (YRF Studios) | Won |

## Sequel

A sequel titled Tiger 3 released on 12 November 2023 and was directed by Maneesh Sharma. Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif reprised their roles while Emraan Hashmi plays the antagonist. Aditya Chopra, Shridhar Raghavan and Anckur Chaudhry wrote the script. Salman Khan also reprised his role as Tiger in the 2023 film Pathaan.