War (2019 film)
War is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films. The third installment in the YRF Spy Universe, it stars Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the lead roles, with Vaani Kapoor and Ashutosh Rana. In the film, an Indian RAW agent is assigned to eliminate his former mentor who has gone rogue.
Principal photography commenced in September 2018. Tentatively titled Fighters, the title of War was announced on 15 July 2019. The film was made on an estimated budget of with a further spent on print and advertising. Vishal–Shekhar composed the soundtrack, with the background score composed by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara, replacing Anand's frequent collaborators Salim–Sulaiman.
War was theatrically released on 2 October 2019, with dubbed versions of Telugu and Tamil, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise towards its action sequences, visuals, direction, cinematography, story, soundtrack, and cast performances, but criticism towards its screenplay. It emerged as a commercial success grossing, becoming the highest-grossing Indian film of 2019. A sequel titled War 2 was released in 2025.
Plot
In New Delhi, Major Kabir Dhaliwal is assigned to assassinate an Iraqi terrorist named Farid Haqqani, but instead kills veteran RAW agent V. K. Naidu declaring himself rogue. Defence Minister Sherna Patel and Colonel Sunil Luthra assign Kabir's former student Captain Khalid Rahmani to eliminate him.In a flashback, Khalid Rahmani yearns to join Kabir's squad, but is initially rejected due to Khalid's father Major Abdul Rahmani betraying the army in a previous mission, leaving Kabir with two gunshot wounds and his partner dead. After being persuaded by Luthra, Kabir is openly hostile towards Khalid and reluctantly agrees to let Khalid join his team. The squad consists of agents Saurabh, Prateek, Muthu and Aditi.
The team goes on a successful mission in Tikrit, Iraq to kill Haqqani's associates and are able to arrest a terrorist named Basheer Hassib, causing their main target Rizwan Ilyasi, a terrorist turned businessman to come out of hiding. Despite the mission's success, Kabir notices that Khalid missed many of his targets from his right side and lacks peripheral vision, leading to Kabir threatening Khalid for removal from his squad. Khalid reveals that as a result of his father's betrayal, his eyesight was partially damaged due to a bullying incident in his childhood. Seeing his love for his mother and country, Khalid gains Kabir's trust and gets reinstated. The team captures Ilyasi in a mission in Marrakesh, during which Ilyasi informs Kabir that he planted a mole within the team. Saurabh reveals himself as the mole and kills Prateek and Muthu. A shootout ensues between Kabir and one of Ilyasi's men. Kabir gets shot in neck and wakes up in a hospital. Few days later, he meets an injured Khalid who tells him that he killed Saurabh.
In the present, Khalid is nearly taken off the mission until Lt. Col. Jimmy Shroff is brutally killed by Kabir, who intercepts Khalid on a metro, revealing his next target to be Dr. Uptal Biswas in Lisbon. Khalid fails to prevent Biswas from being killed by Kabir, leading to his suspension. Khalid tracks down Kabir through a previous mission, where he learns that six months ago, Kabir was on a covert operation to find a government hard drive with secret codes and was targeting Ilyasi's known associates. Khalid also learns that Kabir faked a relationship with a dancer named Naina Sahni in Italy in order for her to spy on Firoze Contractor, Ilyasi's manager. Naina, who agreed terms to act as a spy for Kabir on the condition that her daughter Ruhi be provided for, was ultimately killed by Firoze, shortly after Kabir deduced that Firoze was in fact a disguised Ilyasi, having undergone plastic surgery. Kabir has since faked betrayal to catch Ilyasi's moles and agents, the truth only known to Aditi; this is why he killed Naidu, Shroff and Biswas. Kabir and Khalid agree to work with each other, but Kabir's hideout is attacked; and the duo flee to Kerala where they attend Aditi's wedding and recover a hard drive with the codes. Aditi tells Kabir the codes are for nuclear missiles targeted towards the Brahma satellite which is what helps the Indian government communicate towards all the agencies including the soldiers on active duty in the Kashmir border. She tells him that Ilyasi plans to destroy the satellite to cut off all communication with the soldiers so that terrorists can unexpectedly cross the border without the soldiers being warned and can cause an attack at India worse than anything Osama or ISIS ever did. Kabir hands the drive to Khalid for safekeeping.
While celebrating the mission's success on a houseboat, Khalid poisons Kabir's drink with TTX, revealing, in a shocking twist, that he is in fact, Saurabh. In a flashback to the Marrakesh mission, upon learning Saurabh's true colors, a fight between Khalid and Saurabh ensued. In the midst, Ilyasi shot Khalid in the back multiple times before being stabbed by Saurabh, killing him. Saurabh informed Ilyasi of his troubles regarding the plan and Ilyasi, in turn, brought Saurabh to Dr. Mallika Singhal, a renowned plastic surgeon, to change his identity to Khalid so Kabir wouldn't know the truth; Mallika changed Saurabh's vocal cords and adjusted his face, making Saurabh's scars alone visible to give the impression of being an injured Khalid. After Saurabh reveals his true identity to Kabir, he throws a weakened Kabir into the river.
In the Arctic Circle, Saurabh returns to Ilyasi who is located on an icebreaker ship. Kabir arrives in a parachute onto the ship, and kills Ilyasi's men. Kabir confronts a shocked Saurabh for his betrayal and reveals to him that he knew his true identity all along, after having seen him shoot perfectly from his right side, which Khalid couldn't due to his eye defect, and drinking alcohol, something Khalid abstained from owing to his religious beliefs. Aditi had provided Kabir with an antidote for the poison after seeing "Khalid" visit office despite suspension and noticing a sample of TTX missing and inserted a GPS tracker in the drive, when handing it over to Saurabh for safekeeping so that he can use it to track him and Ilyasi. Saurabh then gloats saying the Brahma satellite is about to be destroyed only to be revealed that the coordinates have changed and are steering away from the satellite. A shocked Illyasi and Saurabh learn from Kabir that the missile is approaching the ship itself. Kabir then holds Ilyasi at gunpoint threatening Saurabh to drop his gun only for him to betray Ilyasi. Saurabh kills Ilyasi and escapes to a derelict church, while being chased by Kabir in an intense car chase after he had escaped previously from the ship before the missile blew it up. A fight occurs and Kabir walks out after killing Saurabh by getting him crushed under the falling church dome, destroying his face once again, as Kabir implores he doesn't want a traitor like Saurabh to die with a martyred Khalid's face.
Khalid is posthumously honoured for his sacrifice, while his mother Nafeesa receives an award from the Prime Minister on his behalf. Kabir later meets up with Luthra, who is revealed to be aware of his defection; the former informs the latter he is better off working outside the system since everybody seems to have a price for him. Later, Kabir and Ruhi surf together at Bondi Beach in Sydney, fulfilling Naina's wish of surfing with her, while Luthra calls him to complete an incomplete mission of killing Haqqani.
Cast
- Hrithik Roshan as Major Kabir Dhaliwal, a rogue RAW agent, main protagonist.
- Tiger Shroff in a dual role as
- * Captain Khalid Rahmani, Kabir's protege, main protagonist.
- ** Ayaan Zubair as young Khalid
- * Captain Saurabh Patil, main antagonist.
- Vaani Kapoor as Naina Sahni, Ruhi's mother
- Ashutosh Rana as Colonel Sunil Luthra, Joint Secretary of RAW
- Anupriya Goenka as Captain Aditi Nahta, Kabir's teammate
- Yash Raaj Singh as Captain Saurabh Patil, Ilyasi's secret henchman
- Sanjeev Vatsa as Rizwan Ilyasi
- Mashhoor Amrohi as Firoze Contractor / Rizwan Ilyasi
- Soni Razdan as Nafisa Rahmani, Khalid's mother
- Dipannita Sharma as Dr. Mallika Singhal, a plastic surgeon in Zurich
- Arif Zakaria as Dr. Utpal Biswas
- Mohit Chauhan as V. K. Naidu, a retired RAW agent
- Amit Gaur as Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Shroff Para SF
- Dishita Sehgal as Ruhi, Naina's daughter
- Jessey Lever as Muthu, Kabir's teammate
- Imran Ahamed as Saini
- Swaroopa Ghosh as Defence Minister Sherna Patel
- Anil Khopkar as President of India
- Ravi Awana as Basheer Hassib
- Keith Dallison as Farid Haqqani
Production
Development
On Yash Chopra's birth anniversary and following the success of Ek Tha Tiger, Yash Raj Films announced a new action film starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. Vaani Kapoor was finalised to play the female lead. Action Choreographers, Paul Jennings and Se-Oh Yeong were employed to design the action sequences.The climax scene of the film was shot on the Arctic Circle; the first Indian film to do so. Siddharth Anand, the director of the film stated, "We want to push the benchmark of action movies that are made in our country. So, we are bringing two of the biggest action choreographers together to design some of the most outlandish and visually-spectacular sequences. On one hand, we have Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood and on the other, we have Mr SeaYoung Oh, who is an outstanding martial arts action choreographer from South Korea."