Indian 2 (2024)

Indian 2

Indian 2 is an upcoming South Indian Tamil-language action movie directed by S. Shankar. Kamal Haasan reprises his role as Senapathy/Indian, an aging independence fighter turned vigilante who fights against corruption and crimes, in this sequel to the 1996 film Indian.

In supporting roles, Siddharth appears alongside Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Kalidas Jayaram, Gulshan Grover, Nedumudi Venu, Vivek, Samuthirakani, Bobby Simha, Guru Somasundaram, Delhi Ganesh, Jisshu Sengupta, Jayaprakash, Manobala, Vennela Kishore, and Deepa Shankar.

In September 2017, news of Indian 2 was released. Beginning in January 2019, principal photography took held in Chennai, Rajahmundry, and Bhopal. Following an accident on the sets in February 2020 that resulted in the deaths of a few staff members, filming was stopped. Since then, production had been put on hold due to a variety of reasons, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, cost overruns, and legal issues, until picking again up in August 2022.

Release Date

Indian 2 is set to be released on August 24, 2024, in theaters.

About

In May 2015, Shankar started talking about making a sequel to his 1996 movie Indian. The original film's producer, A. M. Rathnam of Sri Surya Movies, was contacted for the first time but declined to comment because it was too early to discuss the project. Later, Shankar put off commencing the project since he was preoccupied with the making of 2.0, but he kept at the story subject for Indian 2. The film's public announcement took place in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, at the Bigg Boss finale in late September 2017.

The project's funding was stated to be provided by well-known Telugu film producer Dil Raju for his film business Sri Venkateswara Creations, making it his first venture into Tamil. The host, Kamal Haasan, who also played the lead in the original movie, was confirmed as the leading man. The movie's producer, Allirajah Subaskaran of Lyca Productions, took over in October 2017 after Raju backed out due to the film's exorbitant production costs.

After a 24-year separation, Shankar and Haasan are reunited in the movie. Instead of collaborating with his usual partner A. R. Rahman, who provided the soundtrack for its predecessor, Shankar chose to collaborate with Anirudh Ravichander for the first time. Later, in late December 2018, it was announced that he was included. T. Muthuraj was chosen as the film's art director.

R. Rathnavelu took over for Ravi Varman, who had committed to do the cinematography for the movie but was unable to commit to shooting dates due to production delays. To help finish the storyline and dialogue for the movie, writers Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu, and Lakshmi Saravanakumar all agreed to work on it.

Production subsequently began on January 18, 2019, after a series of advertising posters depicting Haasan in his role were published in early January 2019. The team first shot scenes in a nearby film studio after a week-long shoot at a memorial home close to Government General Hospital in Chennai. But as the creators encountered issues with the built-in sets, the movie was again postponed. Due to Haasan's political party's participation in the Indian general election in May 2019, the shooting was further delayed.

The film's creators repeatedly refuted media allegations that it had been shelved during the course of the film's creation in 2018 and the beginning of 2019. After the elections, in May 2019, the shooting was resumed. Cinematographer Ravi Varman also quit the film due to the lengthy gap between the schedules after deciding to work on Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: I. He was replaced by R. Rathnavelu, who had previously collaborated with Shankar on Enthiran.

The film's production was further halted by the pandemic and a serious accident that occurred on the site. After hosting the fourth season of Bigg Boss, Haasan intended to pick up the shoot again in January 2021. However, the producers cited the challenges of wrapping up the filming before the elections in Tamil Nadu, and they planned to resume the filming without Haasan in February 2021.

The other cast members and the director were urged to remain available for the shoot, and they intended to finish Haasan's portions after the elections. 60% of the movie's parts were finished as of November 28th, 2021, and there are still more than 100 days left to shoot.

Due to Haasan and Shankar's other commitments, filming was originally scheduled to resume in December 2021 but was further delayed. Red Giant Movies' Udhayanidhi Stalin said in June 2022 that he had spoken with Subaskaran and that filming would soon resume, although he did not specify if he would also be co-producing or handling the movie's distribution. With Red Giant Movies confirmed as co-producers, filming commenced on August 24, 2022.

Haasan and Aggarwal joined the crew in September. Vivek and Venu's deaths prevented the film from being finished, therefore Shankar reportedly opted to employ VFX to finish their remaining portions. From April 12 to April 18, 2023, South Africa served as the location for a shoot.

Music

Anirudh Ravichander, who is co-composing the soundtrack album and the background score alongside Shankar, is doing so for the first time. He takes over for Shankar's frequent associate A. R. Rahman, who composed the music for the first movie.

After Vikram, this will be Anirudh and Haasan's second collaboration. Rahman said in an interview that "Shankar eventually had different ideas, although Kamal had mentioned me to score for its sequel.

Shankar is someone who seeks inspiration. Working with the same individual back-to-back can get boring at times. I needed a lot of time to finish the challenging movie 2.0. Perhaps Shankar felt he shouldn't put too much pressure on me. That can be one of the motives behind his decision to go with Anirudh.

Cast

Kamal Haasan as Indian

Kamal Hassan

Siddharth

Kajal Aggarwal

Kajal Agarwal

Rakul Preet Singh

Priya Bhavani Shankar

Kalidas Jayaram

Gulshan Grover

Vennela Kishore

Nedumudi Venu as Inspector Krishnasamy

Vivek

Samuthirakani

Bobby Simha

Jisshu Sengupta

Deepa Shankar

Manobala

Accident on the sets

On February 19, 2020, while the movie was being made, a crane carrying a large flash light fell onto the sets, killing three crew members—including the assistant director—and injuring ten more. Aggarwal, Shankar, and Haasan all narrowly avoided harm. On February 21, the Chennai police filed a case against Lyca Productions and three other people in connection with the disaster.

The same day, the crane operator Rajan, who fled after the accident, was apprehended and charged under three sections. Later, the CBI called Haasan and Shankar to investigate the accident that occurred during the sets.