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EXCLUSIVE: 'John Abraham’s character warrants a prequel': Siddharth Anand on Pathaan, War 2 and Spy Universe
The creator of War and Pathaan, Siddharth Anand, informs that it was Aditya Chopra's idea to do a crossover of Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. Read detailed report
Siddharth Anand is on a high celebrating the humongous success of his magnum opus, Pathaan starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in lead. The film also officially kicked off the YRF Spy Universe, which boasts of characters like Tiger (Salman Khan), Zoya (Katrina Kaif), Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) , Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan) and Rubai (Deepika Padukone). Siddharth informs that the germ of Spy Universe came from War. “After the success of War, I had a chat with Adi (Aditya Chopra) on expanding this universe and do some crossover,” Siddharth informs.
SPY Universe with Tiger, Kabir and Pathaan
The filmmaker further adds, “I don’t think this was in the back of anyone’s mind when the 2 Tiger films were made or when War was made. It is after the success of War that we thought of a universe. With the story of Pathaan, we thought this could spin into one as we already have 3 spies with scope for many more.” At present, Sid has 2 films in the 300 crore club and in the coming few days, he will become the first director to have a film in 400 crore and 500 crore club at the box office.
Siddharth confirms that a crossover between Tiger and Pathaan was producer, Aditya Chopra’s idea. “It was Adi’s idea to do a crossover of Salman in Pathaan. We could have got Hrithik or any other actor on board too, but to have Salman and Shah Rukh in a film doing action has not happened before. I think, the last when they were doing action together was in 1996 with Karan Arjun. Fortunately, Adi had the IP of Tiger to do this crossover and the result is fantastic,” Siddharth smiles.
Will there be a prequel to John Abraham's Jim?
While Shah Rukh Khan has got the cash registers ringing with his portrayal of titular role and is on the verge of delivering the biggest grosser of Hindi Cinema, there has been a chatter about John Abraham’s portrayal of the antagonist, Jim in the film too. Is there a film with Jim’s back story? “It should be, but it’s too early to talk about anything. I feel, Jim’s character does warrant a prequel,” he answers.
In Pathaan, there is a dialogue which speaks about the bond shared by Jim (John Abraham) with Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) in earlier times. Would the prequel explore this equation? “Ya, why not, anything can happen. It’s a universe and you can do anything with the characters – it’s a playground. You can have a prequel to Jim.. oh wait, what if Jim is not dead? What if there’s a harness that pulls a parachute?” he smiles, leaving everyone to make their own fan theory.
All through the last year, there were ample of speculations about Hrithik Roshan’s involvement in Pathaan as Kabir from War. Could this crossover between Kabir and Pathaan also happen? “Obviously, there was a thought back then, but since we just started amalgamating this universe, it’s too early to bring everyone together. There should be a little thirst of getting this combination, but of course, this crossover will happen,” he concludes.
Stay tuned to Pinkvilla as an exclusive video interaction with Siddharth Anand goes live on Friday, wherein, he discussed the success of Pathaan, the pressures of directing Shah Rukh Khan, the future of Spy Universe and lot more.
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