Jawan (film)

Jawan
Directed by	Atlee
Produced by	Gauri Khan Gaurav Verma
Screenplay by	Atlee S. Ramanagirivasan
Dialogues by	Sumit Arora
Story by	Atlee
Starring	Shah Rukh Khan Nayanthara Vijay Sethupathi
Music by	Anirudh Ravichander
Cinematography	G. K. Vishnu
Edited by	Ruben
Production company	Red Chillies Entertainment
Distributed by	Pen Marudhar Entertainment (North India and West India) Red Giant Movies (Tamil Nadu) Sri Venkateswara Creations (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) Sree Gokulam Movies (Kerala) SVF (West Bengal) Yash Raj Films (International)
Release date	7 September 2023 (2023-09-07)
Running time	169 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	est. ₹300 crore

Jawan (transl. Soldier) is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written and directed by Atlee, in his first Hindi film. It is produced by Gauri Khan and Gaurav Verma under Red Chillies Entertainment. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role, alongside Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Deepika Padukone (billed as a special appearance), Priyamani and Sanya Malhotra.

Principal photography commenced in September 2021 with filming taking place in Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Rajasthan and Aurangabad. The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by Anirudh Ravichander, with cinematography by G. K. Vishnu and editing by Ruben.

Jawan was initially planned for release on 2 June 2023, but was postponed due to unfinished post-production work. It was theatrically released on 7 September 2023 in standard, IMAX, 4DX and other premium formats, coinciding with Janmashtami.

Plot

Azad Khan is a prison officer at a woman's prison who has a purpose to clear the name of his soldier-father Vikram Rathore and keeping a promise made to his mother Aishwarya to become a vigilante and bring justice to the oppressed. Azad and his gang of women consisting of Lakshmi, Eeram, Ishkra, Kalki, Helena and Janhvi; continuously works towards justice for the nation’s citizens, where they face challenges from senior cop and Azad's love interest Narmada Rai and a global weapons dealer Kaali Gaikwad.

Cast

• Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as Vikram Rathore and Azad Khan/Azad Rathore
• Nayanthara as Narmada Rai
• Vijay Sethupathi as Kaalie Gaikwad
• Deepika Padukone as Aishwarya (special appearance)
• Priyamani as Lakshmi
• Sunil Grover as Irani
• Riddhi Dogra as Kaveri
• Sanya Malhotra as Dr. Eram
• Sanjeeta Bhattacharya as Helena
• Girija Oak as Ishkra
• Lehar Khan as Kalki
• Aaliyah Qureishi
• Yogi Babu as Pappu in Tamil version
• Mukesh Chhabra as Pappu in Hindi version
• Eijaz Khan as Manish Gaikwad, Kaalie's brother
• Astha Agarwal
• Kenny Basumatary as Naazir Ahmed
• Jaffer Sadiq as Sudhir
• Ganesh Gurung
• Rutuja Shinde
• Benedict Garrett
• Abhishek Deswal as Abdul
• Sai Dheena
• Ashlesha Thakur as Alia Gaikwad, Kaali's daughter
• Smita Tambe as Kalki's mother
• Omkar Das Manikpuri as Kalki's father
• Atlee in a cameo appearance
• Sanjay Dutt as Madhavan Naik in a cameo appearance

Production

Development

In late 2019, it was rumoured that Shah Rukh Khan would team up with Tamil film director Atlee. Atlee confirmed the project while promoting Bigil. In May 2021, it was reported that the filming would commence soon. The film is produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment, while Gaurav Verma serves as a co-producer. The company made a public announcement on 3 June 2022, confirming the project. The film is being made on a budget of ₹300 crore.

Atlee co-wrote the film's script along with S. Ramana Girivasan, in his fourth consecutive collaboration with the director. Sumit Arora contributed the dialogues. Atlee further retained most of his norm technicians including cinematographer G. K. Vishnu, editor Ruben, art director T. Muthuraj and stunt director Anal Arasu. Spiro Razatos, Craig Macrae, Yannick Ben, Kecha Khamphakdee and Sunil Rodrigues also were hired as stunt directors. Dance choreographers of the film includes Farah Khan, Vaibhavi Merchant, Shobi and Lalitha.

Casting

Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director. Khan was reported to play a dual role, as father and son, and would be seen in six different looks. Nayanthara was finalised as the female lead opposite Khan, thus marking her Hindi cinema debut. Priyamani, Sunil Grover, Sanya Malhotra and Yogi Babu later joined the cast. Reuniting with Khan after a decade, Babu last acted opposite Khan in Chennai Express (2013). Rana Daggubati was offered the antagonist role but declined citing health issues and thus the role went to Vijay Sethupathi. Deepika Padukone joined the cast in August 2022 in Chennai to shoot her special appearance. In September 2022, Vijay was reported to be making a cameo in the film, but later director denied the news. In March 2023, Sanjay Dutt joined the cast to shoot for a cameo during an action scene.

Filming

File:Pune Metro PCMC.jpg

Part of the film was shot at Pune Metro.

Principal photography commenced in September 2021 in Pune. Shah Rukh Khan and Nayanthara joined the 10–days shoot. It is the first film to be shot at Pune Metro. Khan resumed the shoot in June 2022 in Hyderabad. Nayanthara joined the Mumbai schedule on 26 June 2022, after her marriage. Some family sequences were taken in this schedule.

In August, the next schedule started in Chennai, where Deepika Padukone shot her cameo part. Later Vijay Sethupathi joined the shoot. Some action sequences between Khan and Sethupathi were taken in this schedule. The song "Zinda Banda" was shot during this schedule, in jail. The song, which shot for 5 days included 1000 dancers, and was choreographed by Shobi Paulraj. The song was also reshot and added in the Tamil version as "Vandha Edam" and in the Telugu version as "Dhumme Dhulipelaa". A month long Chennai schedule was wrapped on 7 October.

The next schedule was held in Rajasthan, in October. Khan and Nayanthara joined this 20–day schedule. Next schedule was held in February 2023, where Khan shot some chase scenes. Sanjay Dutt joined the shoot on 20 March 2023, to shoot an action-packed cameo. In April 2023, a song titled "Chaleya" featuring Khan and Nayanthara was shot at Mumbai and Bandra–Worli Sea Link. Later the same month, a song featuring Khan and Deepika Padukone, for her cameo appearance was shot at Film City, Mumbai. Both the songs were choreographed by Farah Khan. In mid July, song titled "Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya" featuring Khan and Nayanthara, choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant was shot at the Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai.

Post-production

Post-production for the film began by January 2023 and went on for six months as the film involves extensive computer graphics and visual effects. Editing was handled by Ruben. The VFX work of the film is done by Red Chillies VFX. Harry Hingorani served as the visual effects supervisor with Keitan Yadav as the VFX producer of the film. In April, the company hired visual effects technicians to the team. Ken Metzker of Red Chillies Color did the colouring for the film. Kunal Rajan served as the sound designer. Nayanthara dubbed for her character in early May 2023. Raveena Ravi dubbed for Deepika Padukone for the Tamil and Telugu versions of the film.

The final copy of the film was ready by early August 2023, and was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that month. On 22 August 2023, the film received a U/A certificate from the Censor Board, with a finalised runtime of 169 minutes.

Music

Main article: Jawan (soundtrack)

The soundtrack is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, who would mark his debut as a solo composer in Bollywood, previously having composed a song for David and the background score of Jersey. Initially, A. R. Rahman was reportedly approached by director Atlee to compose for the film. Rahman subsequently declined the offer for reasons unknown, and Anirudh was chosen to compose for the film. The music rights were bagged by T-Series for ₹36 crore, which was a record price for a Hindi album.

The soundtrack consists of seven original songs composed by Anirudh, namely, "Zinda Banda", "Chaleya", "Not Ramaiya Vastavaiya", "Aararaari Raaro", "Jawan Title Track", "Faraatta" and "Chaleya" (Arabic). Lyrics are written by Irshad Kamil and Kumaar.

Marketing

The film's title, along with a glimpse video was released on 3 June 2022. Later the film got postponed and a new release date was announced through a motion poster released on 6 May 2023. A teaser trailer, titled "Jawan Prevue" was released on 10 July 2023. It became the most watched Indian teaser in 24 hours with over 112 million views. Later, the teaser was attached to the prints of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Jailer and Gadar 2 in theatres.

After the song "Zinda Banda" was released in July 2023, the hook step choreographed by Shobi Paulraj and performed by Khan in the music video went viral. Many people have recreated the hook step (signature step) by recording themselves dancing to the song and posting their videos on social media.

As a part of the film's promotions, carried by GM Modular, the marketing team designed the film's posters at the Mumbai Metro and subsequently, at the Kolkata Metro. The official merchandise of Jawan was launched by Fully Filmy on 25 August 2023.

On 30 August 2023, a grand pre-release event for the film took place in Chennai at Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, Chennai where Khan received wishes from Kamal Haasan, and shared anecdotes. Mirchi Vijay and Bhavana Balakrishnan hosted the event. The television streaming rights for the event were acquired by Sun Network. The event was telecasted on Sun TV and Surya TV on 3 September.

The official trailer of the film was unveiled on 31 August 2023. On the same day, Khan arrived in Dubai to celebrate the release of the trailer with the fans and showcased it on the Burj Khalifa.

Release

Theatrical

Jawan was theatrically released on 7 September 2023 in standard, IMAX, 4DX and other premium formats in Hindi along with dubbed versions of Tamil and Telugu languages. Earlier the film was scheduled to release on 2 June 2023. Later in May 2023, it was reported that the film is delayed to August 2023. The film was later reported to release on the original release date, However, later it was confirmed that the film will release on 7 September 2023. Jawan is the first Indian film to release in the IMAX Leonberg, the largest cinema theatres in the world. It is also the first Hindi film to be released on the same day in Bangladesh.

Distribution

Pen Studios acquired the theatrical rights for North India and West India under the Pen Marudhar Entertainment banner. Sree Gokulam Movies acquired theatrical distribution rights of the film in Tamil Nadu and Kerala for ₹50 crore, and would release under Red Giant Movies in Tamil Nadu and Dream Big Films in Kerala. Sri Venkateswara Creations acquired the distribution rights for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Mysore territory rights have been acquired by Panorama Studios. SVF acquired the theatrical rights for West Bengal. Rajshri Productions will distribute the film in Odisha, and Prakash Pictures in Bihar.

The overseas theatrical rights were sold to Yash Raj Films. Home Screen Entertainment bought Singapore distribution rights of the film, while Lighthouse Distribution acquired the distribution rights for Spain. Action Cut Entertainment together with Rongdhonu Group is distributing the film in Bangladesh. Friday Entertainment will distribute the film in France. Non-theatrical rights of the film were sold for ₹250 crore (US$35 million).

Reception

Critical response

Sukanya Verma of Rediff gave 4/5 stars and commended Jawan's political storytelling, writing that it "boldly and directly points fingers at the ineffective government and appeals to recognise the power of the finger and vote". Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times termed it a "massy, meaningful actioner". Nandini Ramnath of Scroll believed that the film worked primarily due to Khan, writing that his "screen image – expansive, suffused with love, heroic in an old-fashioned way without being aggressively macho, irreverent but also sincere – helps sell a conceit that might have crashed with any other actor".

Sonil Dedhia of News18 gave 4/5 stars and labelled it as an "ambitious vigilante action thriller that plays to the gallery and lives up to the hype. Far-fetched in writing but high on star power and style". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4.5/5 stars and praised the film's "superlative performances, thrilling and clap worthy moments, larger-than-life action sequences and a never-before-seen avatar of Shah Rukh Khan". Himesh Mankad of Pinkvilla gave 4/5 stars and praised the action sequences and Khan's performance, adding that the film "is headed to be a HISTORIC BLOCKBUSTER".

Box office

Jawan set the record for the biggest advance bookings in Hindi cinema, beating the record set by Khan's own Pathaan earlier in the year.

External links

• Jawan on IMDb
• Jawan on Bollywood Hungama