Actor Tiger Shroff, who has emerged as one of the most bankable young stars in Bollywood, is happy being tagged as an action hero.
“I enjoy doing action films. Today, whatever I have achieved is because of the films I have done, primarily the action films. All my inspirations like Jackie Chan and Hrithik Roshan have been big action heroes. So, I am inspired to be like them and I am inspired to do things like them,” said Shroff at an event to celebrate the success of his new release ‘War’ on Friday in Mumbai. He was accompanied by his co-stars Hrithik Roshan and Vaani Kapoor, and the film’s director Siddharth Anand.
“Currently, my peers are doing such amazing work, so how does one create an identity for oneself? I just want to create my own identity. When people identify me as an action hero, for me that’s more than enough,”
Shroff’s past action hits include ‘Heropanti’, ‘Baaghi’, ‘A Flying Jatt’ and ‘Baaghi 2’. He will next be seen in ‘Baaghi 3’ and the Bollywood remake of the cult Hollywood hit, ‘Rambo’.
‘War’ made Rs231 million (Dh11.9 million) on Thursday, taking its two-day collection to Rs777 million.
Roshan and Shroff have collaborated for the first time and thanks to the hype surrounding the film the makers have added 200 screens for ‘War’.
“The day I came to know I would be working in a two-hero film with Hrithik Roshan, I told myself I can’t get a bigger opportunity than this. It was like ticking off one thing on my ‘to do’ list. This film has been an educational and empowering journey,” said Shroff.
“I feel ‘War’ is really special film for me because he [Roshan] is somebody I look up to so, it was easy in a way to relate to my character, because my character looks up to his character in the film as well. It was a genuine feeling for me,” Shroff added.
Asked if ‘War’ would have a sequel, director Siddharth Anand said: “It’s too early to talk about it, but I definitely had an idea to convert this into a franchise. We were waiting for the audience reaction to the film. Now, I am feel that it’s an audience demand more than our desire. We will soon sit together to decide our future course of action.”
With a screen count of 4,000 including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu prints, ‘War’ is doing well in South India too, despite stiff competition from Chiranjeevi’s ‘Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy’.
Roshan said the back-to-back success of ‘Super 30’ and ‘War’ encourages him to set his benchmark higher.
“I would like to say, thank you very much. I think I am fortunate that I have done films that have empowered me. I felt so much love and passion for both the films. After this, I feel every encouraged. From now, I will set my benchmark even higher,” said Roshan.
‘War’ is an expensive film and will take some time to record blockbuster profits, but the film’s opening has been up to expectations. Opening as a solo release across around 4,000 screens in the festive holiday weekend, ‘War’ recorded the highest first-day collection for any Bollywood film ever, raking in Rs533.5 million.
Talking about two-hero films, Roshan said: “I think to pull off two-hero films, you really need two people who have real and honest admiration and love for each other. If not, the director is dead. As far as Tiger Shroff goes, I genuinely feel so much love and so much admiration for the person and the actor he is. I don’t think the film would have been possible without these.”
Roshan revealed he had no expectations from the film when he started shooting.
“I had no expectation, but I had anticipation, fear and aspiration, that I need to be my best in the next shot. Not just me, everyone needs to be their best in the next shot. So I don’t think I had thought about expectations or the box office collection when we were making the film. It was just about doing our next shot best. Once the film was completed, that is when hope started to build up. That hope paid off more than expected, into success and celebration,” said Roshan.
‘War’ is produced by Aditya Chopra under his banner Yash Raj Films.
The film is currently out in the UAE.
