Kamal Haasan and S Shankar’s Indian 2 comes 28 years after Indian. Also starring Siddharth, the film revolves around a vigilante who fights corruption in the country. At the trailer launch of the Hindi version of the film, Hindustani 2, Haasan surprised many as he confessed that he didn’t want to be a part of the 1996 film in the first place, so much so that he hiked his fee hoping that Shankar would back out on his own. But as fate would have it, he went on to headline the actioner, which emerged as a box-office blockbuster.
But now we’ve learnt that Haasan was so impressed with the film that he urged his director to begin shooting for Hindustani 2 even before the first part could release. In an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha, the superstar says, “Shankar might remember this. When I was doing the dubbing of Indian part one, I told him that let’s go for part two. We were in the throes of getting that film released. It felt like a joke but I had really meant it.”
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Hindustani marked the first-ever collaboration between Haasan and Shankar. Recalling his earliest memory of the Boys and Enthiran maker, he tells us, “I thought, he was a guy who either doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he does. He was so calm. His demeanour was very unexpected considering he just had one hit behind him.”
The Kalki 2898 AD and Vikram star continues, “Even this time around when we were shooting for Indian 2, he had the same calm. He doesn’t have any less problems now. In fact, he must have had more problems then. But that calm was something I really admired about him. There must have been a lot of production problems but he had a fantastic producer in AM Rathnam.”
Lauding the veteran producer for backing a difficult and expensive film like Hindustani with the same composure as Shankar, Haasan states, “We remember him fondly even now. That’s how good he was. He was our first audience. He was a technician – a make-up artist – who became a producer. Indian was the costliest film we were making in our careers. Imagine what it would have for him! But he stood by it. You could never tell that he was the producer of such a costly film because he was always happy and smiling and that was contagious.”
With patriotic films being made in galore, Hindustani 2 is another addition to the list. And yet it remains highly anticipated as it sees Haasan reprising his role as Senapathy, an ageing freedom fighter turned vigilante. At a time when patriotism gets widely misconstrued, what remains his definition of it? “I’m a citizen of the world and I’m concerned when things go wrong. I shouldn’t be adding agony to it. I want to be a world citizen and I want to live to see the day when passports are abolished. That’s my kind of thinking and people don’t need to agree with me,” he asserts.
Hindustani 2 is jointly produced by Lyca Productions and Red Giant Movies and also stars SJ Suryah, Kajal Aggarwal Kitchlu and Rakul Preet Singh. It is slated for a global theatrical release on July 12 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
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