War (2019 film)

War is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Siddharth Anand, who co-wrote the script with Shridhar Raghavan, Abbas Tyrewala and Aditya Chopra, and produced by Chopra's Yash Raj Films. The film stars Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the lead roles, alongside Vaani Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Anupriya Goenka, Dipannita Sharma, Sanjeev Vatsa, Mashhoor Amrohi, Yash Raaj Singh, Arif Zakaria and Mohit Chauhan. It is the third installment in the YRF Spy Universe. In the film, an Indian RAW agent is assigned to eliminate his former mentor who has gone rogue.
Principal photography commenced in September 2018. Tentatively titled Fighters, the title was announced as War through a teaser on 15 July 2019. The film was made on an estimated budget of ₹150 crore (US$18 million) with a further ₹20 crore (US$2.3 million) spent on print and advertising. Two songs were composed by Vishal–Shekhar while brothers Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara composed the background score, replacing Anand's frequent collaborators Salim–Sulaiman, who had previously composed the background score of Bang Bang!, which also starred Roshan.
War was theatrically released on 2 October 2019 along with dubbed versions of Telugu and Tamil languages, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti. It eventually emerged as a major success grossing ₹4.75 billion (US$67.45 million), becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019. A sequel titled War 2 is in production and is expected to release on 14 August 2025.
In New Delhi, Major Kabir Dhaliwal is assigned to assassinate an Iraqi terrorist named Farid Haqqani, but instead kills veteran RAW agent V. K. Naidu declaring himself to be a rogue. Defence Minister Sherna Patel and Colonel Sunil Luthra assign Kabir's former student Captain Khalid Rahmani to eliminate him.
In a flashback, Khalid Rahmani yearns to join Kabir's squad, but is initially rejected due to Khalid's father Major Abdul Rahmani betraying the army in a previous mission, leaving Kabir with two gunshot wounds and his partner dead. After being persuaded by Luthra, Kabir reluctantly agrees to let Khalid join his team. The squad consists of agents Saurabh, Prateek, Muthu and Aditi.
The team goes on a successful mission in Tikrit, Iraq to kill Haqqani's associates and are able to arrest a terrorist named Basheer Hassib, causing their main target Rizwan Illyasi, a terrorist turned businessman to come out of hiding. Despite the mission's success, Kabir notices that Khalid missed many of his targets from his right side and lacks peripheral vision, leading to Kabir threatening Khalid for removal from his squad. Khalid reveals that as a result of his father's betrayal, his eyesight was partially damaged due to a bullying incident in his childhood. Seeing his love for his mother and country, Khalid gains Kabir's trust and gets reinstated. The team captures Illyasi in a mission in Marrakesh, during which Illyasi informs Kabir that he planted a mole within the team. Saurabh reveals himself as the mole and kills Prateek and Muthu. A shootout ensues between Kabir and one of Illyasi's men. Kabir gets shot in neck and wakes up in a hospital a few days later. There, he meets an injured Khalid who tells him that he killed Saurabh.
In the present, Khalid is nearly taken off the mission until Lt. Col. Jimmy Shroff is brutally killed by Kabir, who organises a meeting with Khalid on a metro, revealing his next target is Dr. Uptal Biswas in Lisbon. Khalid fails to prevent Biswas from being killed by Kabir, leading to his suspension. Khalid tracks down Kabir through a previous mission, where he learns that six months ago, Kabir was on a covert operation to find a government hard drive with secret codes and was targeting Illyasi's known associates. Khalid also learns that Kabir faked a relationship with a dancer named Naina Sahni in Italy in order for her to spy on Firoze Contractor, Illyasi's manager. Naina was ultimately killed by Firoze, and Kabir deduces that Firoze was Illyasi, who became Firoze through plastic surgery. Thus Kabir fakes to be a rogue to catch Illyasi's agents and the fact is only known to Aditi. Kabir and Khalid agree to work with each other, but Kabir's hideout is attacked; and the duo flee to Kerala where they attend Aditi's wedding and recover a hard drive with the codes. Kabir hands the drive to Khalid for safekeeping.
While celebrating the mission's success on a houseboat, Khalid poisons Kabir's drink with TTX, revealing, in a shocking twist, that he is in fact, Saurabh. In a flashback, upon learning Saurabh's true colors, a fight between Khalid and Saurabh ensued. In the midst, Illyasi shoots Khalid in the back multiple times before being stabbed by Saurabh, killing him. Saurabh informs Illyasi of his troubles regarding the plan and brings him to Dr. Mallika Singhal, a renowned plastic surgeon, to change his identity to Khalid so that Kabir does not know about his true identity. Mallika changes Saurabh's vocal cords and adjusts his face, making Saurabh's scars only visible to become Khalid. After Saurabh reveals his true identity to Kabir, he throws a weakened Kabir into the river. In the Arctic Circle, Saurabh returns to Illyasi who is located on an icebreaker ship. Kabir arrives in a parachute onto the ship, and kills Illyasi's men. Kabir confronts Saurabh for his betrayal and reveals to him that he knew his true identity all along, after having seen him shoot perfectly from his right side, which Khalid couldn't due to his eye defect, and drinking alcohol, something Khalid abstains from owing to his religious beliefs. Aditi had provided Kabir with an antidote for the poison after seeing "Khalid" visiting office despite suspension and noticing a sample of TTX missing and inserted a GPS tracker in the drive, when handing it over to Saurabh for safekeeping.
Saurabh kills Illyasi and escapes to a derelict church, while being chased by Kabir. A fight occurs and Kabir walks out after killing Saurabh by him getting crushed under a falling church dome destroying his face once again as Kabir doesn't want a traitor Saurabh to die with a martyr Khalid's face.
Khalid is posthumously honoured for his sacrifice, while his mother Nafeesa receives an award from the Prime Minister on his behalf. Kabir, who decides to be persumed a rogue agent for further missions, takes care of Naina's daughter Roohi whom he has adopted. After speaking with Luthra, Kabir agrees to go on a covert mission to kill Haqqani. Later, Kabir and Roohi surf together at Bondi Beach in Sydney, fulfilling Naina's wish of surfing with her.
On Yash Chopra's birth anniversary and following the success of Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Yash Raj Films announced a new action film starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Vaani Kapoor was finalised to play the female lead. Two international action choreographers from Hollywood and South Korea were employed to design action sequences.
The climax scene of the film was shot on the Arctic Circle; the first Indian film to do so. Siddharth Anand, the director of the film stated, "We want to push the benchmark of action movies that are made in our country. So, we are bringing two of the biggest action choreographers together to design some of the most outlandish and visually-spectacular sequences. On one hand, we have Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood and on the other, we have Mr SeaYoung Oh, who is an outstanding martial arts action choreographer from South Korea."
Principal photography began in the second week of September 2018. The film also has a dance off between the two stars in the song "Jai Jai Shivshankar". The film schedule was wrapped up in the beginning of March 2019. The film was shot in multiple exotic locations across Delhi, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Portugal, Italy (Amalfi, Capri, Positano, Matera), Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Georgia and Australia. The bike chase sequence between the two stars was filmed in Portugal. The car chase sequence which was the climax of the film was shot at the Arctic Circle.
The music of the film is composed by Vishal–Shekhar, while lyrics are written by Kumaar in his first formal collaboration with Yash Raj Films. All themes are composed by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara, who replaced director Siddharth Anand's frequent collaborators Salim-Sulaiman.
The film was released on 2 October 2019, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti.
War opened with collection of ₹53.35 crore on its first day. It was the highest opening day collection for a Hindi film. On the second day it collected ₹24.35 crore, On the third day it collected ₹22.45 crore, taking its total collection to ₹100.15 crore. War has already created six new records as the film reaches to 100 crore mark at the box-office. The film entered the 100 Crore Club in three days of its release. The extended opening weekend collection of the film at ₹166.25 crore is the highest opening weekend collection for any 2019 Bollywood film. The film by crossing ₹200 crore in its opening week has become the fastest Bollywood film of 2019 to achieve the feat.
With a gross of ₹318.01 crore from India and ₹157.61 crore from overseas, the film grossed ₹475.62 crore worldwide. It is the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019.
War received mostly positive reviews from critics; on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 71% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10.
Among positive reviews, Anupama Chopra said "War is a popcorn entertainer and you can't ask too many questions but if you're willing to suspend disbelief, the twists and turns exert a solid grip." A writer for Bollywood Hungama gave the film four stars out of five, and said "War is an action entertainer which has style as well as enough twists and turns to keep the viewers engrossed. At the box office, the extended weekend, dazzling action, stunning international locales and stylish execution will ensure mammoth footfalls for the film". Taran Adarsh gave it four stars out of five and called the film "[e]scapist cinema at its best". Komal Nahta of Film Information opined, "The film could prove to be the starting of a new franchise for the Yash Raj Films banner". Writing for India TV, Sonal gave the film three and a half stars out of five, writing, "Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff of Abbas Mustan kinda twists, turns, characters, situations, logic, gravity, physics, chemistry, and some Ekta Kapoor-esque tricks all tossed together to make a visually spectacular concoction". Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film two and a half out of five stars and said, "Both Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff fully commit to the action, bringing swag to the big stylish sequences and a visceral energy to the one-on-one punch-ups in the movie."
The Times of India rated it three stars out of five and felt the film had "lot of style, stunts and show, but lacking a solid storyline". India Today rated it two and a half stars out of five and wrote, "War is a crowd-puller, but it isn't meant to further the cause of cinema". Daily News and Analysis gave three stars out of five and wrote, "War seems more like a Hrithik Roshan and YRF come back than anything else". Writing for The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta granted the film two stars out of five, stating, "The chief trouble with War is that all the space is divvied up between Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, that the poor baddies don't really get a chance". Writing for Firstpost, Anna M. M. Vetticad gave two stars out of five, opining that the film "could have been a suspenseful, eyecatching, entertaining ride. But for its politics... [it] is a painfully condescending ode to Muslim loyalty to our vatan, an ode that is particularly cynical and offensive". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film one and a half stars out of five and stated, "Powered by two loose-limbed and resolutely stone-faced male leads, Hrithik and Tiger, War is all style and no substance".
At the launch of War, Anand confirmed that he was working on the script of its sequel and had plans to convert the film into a franchise, depending on the audience response to the film.
Following the success of War, Yash Raj Films confirmed plans for a sequel, intending to expand the film into a franchise within the YRF Spy Universe. The sequel, titled War 2, is currently in production. Hrithik Roshan will reprise his role as Major Kabir Dhaliwal, joined by N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Kiara Advani, Shabir Ahluwalia, and Anil Kapoor in significant roles. Directed by Ayan Mukerji, War 2 is scheduled for release on 14 August 2025.
It will mark Jr NTR's debut in Hindi cinema and will mark Advani and Kapoor's introduction to the Spy Universe. Principal photography commenced in October 2023. The film aims to build on the established universe, connecting with other YRF Spy films to create a cohesive narrative landscape.