Yash Raj Films’ War 2 was pegged as one of the biggest films of the year. The film saw the return of Hrithik Roshan as Agent Kabir, while Jr NTR made his Hindi film debut and entry into the spy universe. Directed by Ayan Mukerji, the film, however, failed to impress the audience and the box-office numbers reflected that. It turned out to be the weakest film in the spy universe created by YRF. Now, months after the film’s release, Hrithik has addressed its failure.
In a viral video doing the rounds on social media, Hrithik is seen standing on stage at an event, dressed in a tuxedo. The host beside him refers to Hrithik as a superstar and urges the audience to applaud. “Big round of applause for the superstar himself,” he says. Hrithik responds, “That’s very kind of you. My film just bombed at the box office. So it feels very good to get all the love, thank you!”
About War 2’s box-office performance
War 2 opened to a massive Rs 52 crore. However, despite the strong opening, the film could not maintain momentum. While the weekend numbers may appear impressive on paper, they paled in comparison to the film’s budget of over Rs 300 crore.
Talking about the film, trade analyst Taran Adarsh told mid-day, “War 2 has been rejected. It didn’t open as big as it should have on August 14. The numbers rose on August 15, but they didn’t shoot up on Saturday despite it being a holiday. Today, word of mouth travels fast. There are many examples of films whose trailers or songs didn’t track, but still worked because of strong content. The industry was in a joyous mood after Saiyaara, but when a big movie doesn’t work, it sends shockwaves.”
Hrithik on playing Kabir
Before the film`s release, Hrithik Roshan revealed that playing Kabir in War 2 was a lot of fun because he knew the character so well.
Hrithik wrote on Instagram, “Playing Kabir was so much fun. So relaxed, knew him so well. It was going to be easy. Finally a movie I could do like so many others do — keep it simple, play the actor, do your job and come home.”
Sharing that shooting with filmmaker Ayan Mukerji was extremely enjoyable, he added, “And it was exactly that. I was taken care of so well by my director Ayan. It was such a pleasure to have his energy on set.”
Hrithik shared that throughout the shoot, he felt everything was “very easy,” but he kept reminding himself that “a film doesn’t need to be torture.
“Everything seemed so perfect. Like it’s meant to be. A sure shot. No worries, just needed to do my job right. Which of course I did. But something was lurking behind that presumptuous certainty—a voice that I kept shutting out. ‘This is too easy… I know this too well.’ And another that said, ‘I deserve it — every film doesn’t have to be trauma and an incessant search for the truth.’ Relax,” the Dhoom 2 actor concluded.
