Ranbir Kapoor’s “Shamshera” “Brings the Indian Hero Back”

Agneepath director Karan Malhotra’s epic Shamshera is gearing up for a theatrical release in a post-pandemic moment when audiences are once again flocking to theaters.

The film is set in the fictional 19th-century city of Kaza, where a warrior tribe is imprisoned, enslaved and tortured by the ruthless authoritarian General Shudh Singh (Sanjay Dutt). It tells the story of Shamshera (Ranbir Kapoor), an enslaved man who became a leader and then a legend by fighting relentlessly for the freedom and dignity of his tribe. The film will be Kapoor’s first release since 2018’s hit Sanju.

“Shamshera” marks the first action-oriented role for Kapoor, while Dutt is riding a wave of acclaim for his role as an antagonist in “KGF: Chapter 2”, one of the biggest Indian hits of 2022, alongside “RRR”. Originally filmed in the Kannada and Telugu languages ​​respectively, these two films became huge hits in their Hindi-dubbed versions as well, with audiences reacting to their larger-than-life storytelling and heroism. Shamshera promises to be the first current generation Hindi film to capture the zeitgeist celebrated by KGF: Chapter 2 and RRR.

“I’m a huge fan of the great, great Hindi films of yesteryear. I feel like somewhere we’ve lost interest or excitement in retelling stories of this world,” Malhotra said diversity. “Not only as a filmmaker, but also as an audience, I miss this genre a lot. I just came back to this. ‘Shamshera’ is a classic Hindi cinematic experience of 2022-23.”

Malhotra commemorates Dutt missing the golden age of Bollywood heroism to the point where he started a production company to bring the genre back.

“For Sanjay Dutt, ‘Shamshera’ ticks all the boxes for him. He really missed the adrenaline rush and the hero-villain confrontation and action that used to happen in our films,” Malhotra said. “It definitely brings back the Indian hero and it also brings back the Indian villain in a big way. But it’s made so you don’t feel like you’re seeing old wine in a new bottle. ‘Shamshera’ will come across as its own genre.”

Malhotra adds that Kapoor’s image in the film is “100%” new and different. “Ranbir has never done anything like this and I feel lucky to be the first filmmaker to project him into this world, with the look he has in film, with the catharsis he follows,” said Malhotra. “Our emotions are all extreme — we’re not subtle people, we don’t believe in subtle emotions. Ranbir beautifully projected this extreme nature of our sensitivity in the film. So he’s definitely going to offer something very, very new and very, very strong to his fans and those who aren’t expecting him to be in movies like this.”

Shamshera is produced by Aditya Chopra for leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films. It will be released in India and the more than fifty international territories where Bollywood films are released daily on July 22nd. After that, a broader global rollout is planned.