Fighter

<p>In , , a terrorist organization led by Azhar Akhtar plans to attack India, targeting the base of the . Rakesh “Rocky” Jai Singh is assigned to counter the threat and forms a team called “Air Dragons” consisting of skilled fighter pilots. The team includes Shamsher “Patty” Pathania, Minal “Minni” Rathore, Sartaj “Taj” Gill, Basheer “Bash” Khan, Rajan “Unni” Unnithan, and Sukhdeep “Sukhi” Singh. During training, the team members bond, and Minni develops romantic feelings for Patty. However, Patty is haunted by his past after he lost his fiancée in a previous mission. The team learn of an on CRPF soldiers in , organized by Akhtar. In response, the Indian Air Force, along with Zareena Begum, plan a counterattack on Akhtar’s base in . Despite succeeding in the mission, the aftermath causes conflict between India and Pakistan. The launches on the Indian base as a result. Despite Rocky’s orders, Patty, Taj, and Bash cross the . Taj and Bash’s plane is shot down by pilots, leading to their capture. Patty is removed from the team of Air Dragons by Rocky following a court of Inquiry. He is posted as a at the in . Rocky also reveals to Minni that he holds a grudge against Patty for allowing his fiancée, Naina Jai Singh, call sign Enjay (who is revealed to be Rocky’s younger sister), to die in a previous rescue mission. At the AFA, Patty assists a flight cadet, Neha Joshi (who also goes by the similar call sign NJ), in landing safely after she panicked and lost control of her plane during her first solo flight. He feels a sense of atonement after helping Neha and subsequently pays special attention to her training. The announces that they will be escorting Taj and Bash safely back to India. However, the Air Dragons team gets a shock as the , which had gone to receive Taj and Bash, returns only with Bash’s dead body. Sukhi informs Patty that Bash was brutally murdered by Akhtar and that he has imprisoned a severely injured Taj. Determined to rescue him, Patty and Rocky defy orders and join a covert mission. The team successfully infiltrates enemy territory, allowing Patty to rescue Taj and kill Akhtar. After landing, Patty and Minni embrace, celebrating their victory. narrated the idea of making a big-budget action thriller against the backdrop of while shooting the film (2019). loved the basic premise of the story. During , Anand worked on developing the story further and narrated it to Roshan, who later confirmed for the film. In December 2020, it was reported that Siddharth Anand and Hrithik Roshan are going to reunite for a film after (2019). was officially announced on 10 January 2021, on the occasion of Hrithik Roshan’s birthday. The film is the India’s first aerial action film. It is the first installment in its franchise. The film is produced by Siddharth Anand, Mamta Anand, , , Kevin Vaz and , under banners and Marflix Pictures. The film was made on a budget of 250 crore. The film is designed for a global audience, and would involve the use of latest technology and filming techniques. , filmmaker and writer, wrote the story along with Siddharth Anand. Later, Chibb wrote the screenplay of the film under the supervision of Anand and Hrithik Roshan. Akshay Oberoi said that the film has “much heavier” action scenes than (2023). Anand further retained most of his norm technicians including Satchith Paulose, Aarif Sheikh, stunt choreographer SeYeong Oh, and Sunil Rodrigues. Raj Khatri designed posters of the film. In September 2022, Roshan started taking workshops and had continued 12-week simulator training and learned the nuances of playing a fighter jet pilot. His training was supervised by Kris Gethin, developing his abdominal muscles and losing weight. In November 2022, he visited the in , . In the next phase he went to the in . In both these establishments he spent time with the officers, airmen and flight cadets to observe their demeanour and understand the way that they function. Real-life personnel including officers and flight cadets have worked on the film. Besides the personnel from the in and near Hyderabad, the of the was brought in to Mumbai from Air Headquarters (Air HQ) in Delhi for shooting an important scene. In January 2021, and were officially announced as the leads marking their maiden film together. Roshan portrays Patty, an air force officer. Roshan revealed his character as “young, spontaneous and short-tempered”. Padukone also plays an air force officer and has several action sequences in the film. Both Padukone and Roshan took training for their roles. joined the cast in December 2021. and were roped in by November 2022. In March 2023, joined the cast to play role of Patty’s father in the film. In May 2023, was confirmed to play a key role. began on 14 November 2022 in . Roshan, Padukone, and Kapoor joined in the schedule, that took place in . The team returned to on 28 November 2022 after wrapping the 10-day first schedule in Assam. For the second schedule, the team moved to on 6 February 2023. also joined this schedule. The team returned to Mumbai on 12 February, after filming at in Jammu and Kashmir, where a song and few action sequences choreographed by Sunil Rodrigues, were shot. The third schedule was held at the Indian at Dundigal in , to shoot Roshan’s character, as an Air Force cadet undergoing training. The third schedule was wrapped in Hyderabad on 6 March. On 19 March, Roshan began filming in a bungalow for the fourth schedule, in Mumbai. In this schedule, Talat Aziz joined and a few emotional scenes were shot. It was reported that the month-long schedule would end on 24 April. Kapoor, via , shared a behind-the-scenes video of his workout in -110 for the schedule. The team also shot a 25-minute long climactic scene that includes an action sequence, which reportedly took 120 hours (5 days) to shoot. For the next schedule, Rajat Poddarr and his team built an expensive set that housed the interiors of an air force base, classrooms, and offices at , in Mumbai. On 14 May, the next schedule was started with Padukone, Roshan, Kapoor and Grover joining the schedule. On 19 May, the team shot combination scenes of Padukone and Kapoor at , over 3 days. From 22 May, emotional scenes between Padukone and Roshan were shot in , with only 20–30 to avoid the film’s footage . The Mumbai schedule was completed in mid-June. Roshan shot inside an for over 12 days. Dramatic scenes between Roshan and Kapoor was shot in late August in Mumbai. In early September, a song featuring Roshan, Padukone, along with the entire cast, choreographed by the duo , was shot at Yash Raj Studios. Later in early October, the team wrapped two songs in , Italy. Principal photography by 30 October 2023 at Yash Raj Studios, with filming having lasted 87 working days. Post-production for the film begin by early-June 2023, once the film completed its shooting and was going for six months as the film involved extensive and visual effects. The work of the film was done by . The original songs for the film were composed by whereas the original score was written by . The album consists of six songs, including one emotional song. The music rights are bagged by . The first single titled “Sher Khul Gaye” was released on 15 December 2023. The second single titled ” ” was released on 22 December 2023. The third single titled “Heer Aasmani” was released on 8 January 2024. The teaser of the film was released on 8 December 2023. The official trailer of the film was released on 15 January 2024. was released on 25 January 2024, coinciding with the . Earlier in January 2021, it was announced that the film was going to release on 30 September 2022. In October 2022, the release date was announced as 25 January 2024. The film was banned across the countries of the . The film premiered on on 21 March 2024. has grossed (US$29 million) in India, with a further (US$12 million) in overseas, for a worldwide total of (US$41 million). On its opening weekend, it topped the global box-office with a gross of $25 million, including debuting at the top-spot at the . It was a commercial success at the box-office. received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with particular criticism going towards its script. On the website , 38% of 26 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10. , which uses a , assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews. gave the film 4/5 stars and praised the action and performances. gave the film 3.5/5 stars praising the performances and technical aspects. gave the film 2.5/5 stars praising the technical aspects but criticized the cliched storyline. wrote “Watch Fighter for a pure paisa vasool experience, good looking performances and some gravity defying aerial action that won’t give you a headache but leave you with a sense of pride.” gave the film 2.5/5 stars and criticized the film’s excessive . gave a negative review criticising the storyline and dialogues. Multiple international sources have criticized the film as propaganda. While writing the script, Anand decided to make it a franchise. In May 2023, it was reported that production of the sequel film would begin after Anand finished shooting .</p>