War as a movie has generated unprecedented buzz by bringing together Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff and pitting them against each other in a battle of one-upmanship. Or at least, that’s what the first teaser trailer indicates. We already knew that international technicians have been roped in to choreograph the film’s action sequences but the film has gone one step further and shot where no film has shot before.
Director Siddharth Anand revealed that he was informed by his production team that War is the first movie ever to be shot in the Arctic Circle. As seen in the teaser trailer, a car chase sequence on ice was shot in Finland, making War the first ever film to attempt that feat. Siddharth had this to say about the accomplishment.
We were very clear from the start that we want to give Indian audiences action that they have never seen before. Our film has a huge car sequence that sees Hrithik and Tiger perform an adrenaline-pumping action stunt that has been entirely shot on ice. We shot this in Finland, which is in the Arctic Circle and we were informed by our production team that we were the first ever film in the world to shoot an action sequence of this scale in the Arctic.
It’s unclear whether actors Hrithik and Tiger themselves were present for the shoot or whether their portions were filmed against a green screen, composited and edited with footage shot at the Arctic. Hopefully, a behind the scenes look will clarify this further in the future. For now, the director did acknowledge the efforts put in by both his actors to film the risky stunts in the movie. His quote does make it sound like the actors at least went to Finland and shot something.
Hrithik and Tiger have pushed themselves from the word go for our film to pull off some death-defying stunts. This sequence was incredibly risky but visually so stunning that we went for it.
While all this hooplah about impressive action sequences is great, what’s been sorely missing from the interviews is any mention of story and character. At some level, it’s good that they can use the technical wizardy as a distraction to generate hype and curiosity without giving away anything of the plot. Then again, repeated insistence of the movie’s action being great does make you wonder if story was ever the focus at any stage while making War. Hopefully as the film draws closer to its release, a new trailer and some featurettes will shed light on some writing and character choices as well.
War is pegged for release on October 2, 2019. It stars Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor and Dipannita Sharma. War is directed by Siddharth Anand and produced by Aditya Chopra. It will be distributed by Yash Raj Films. The first trailer has already crossed 30 million views on YouTube alone. Bookmark this Appocalypse Hub to follow all coverage on the movie and check out some hi-res stills from the teaser here.
