Intrigue For YRF's Spy Universe Results In Viewership Spike For Hrithik Roshan's War After Pathaan's OTT Release

YRF's cinematic spy universe comprises of Salman Khan's 'Tiger' franchise, Hrithik Roshan's 'War' and the latest addition was Shah Rukh Khan's 'Pathaan'.

Intrigue For YRF's Spy Universe Results In Viewership Spike For Hrithik Roshan's War After Pathaan's OTT Release

New Delhi: Before the release of 'Pathaan', YRF hit a masterstroke by announcing the onset of the 'Spy Universe'. YRF's cinematic spy universe comprises of Salman Khan's 'Tiger' franchise, Hrithik Roshan's 'War' and the latest addition was Shah Rukh Khan's 'Pathaan'.

The announcement generated enormous excitement amongst movie buffs and the coming together of Superstars Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan seemed inevitable. The release of Pathaan on January 25th 2022 had audience thoroughly entertained with the characters of Salman's Avinash Singh Rathore aka Tiger and Shah Rukh's Pathaan deliver an action packed punch. However, the makers made sure to tease the viewers by keeping alive the mystique of Hrithik Roshan's Kabir from War (2019) with several references to his character. The intelligent use of the background score from Hrithik's much loved entry scene in War too was featured in Pathaan - Tiger's action scene.

Sources share, "It is a well thought strategy by the makers of the Spy Universe as they recaptured the popularity of Hrithik Roshan's character from War in the marketing of Pathaan. Regular Television telecasts of War were scheduled too, post the release of Pathaan. Further, releasing Pathaan on the same OTT platform that streams War is yet another strategy to keep the audience intrigued by the Spy universe. War continues to grab the audiences attention on TV while there is a spike in OTT streams for War due to the curiosity generated by Pathaan about Hrithik's character Kabir and his possible connection with John Abraham's Jim."

In addition to the increased viewership on television and OTT platforms, social media has also been buzzing with War references in Pathaan. 

 

yes the BGM of WAR was used there and in that scene also when Colonel mentions about Kabir and Jim

— A N K I T (@Ankitaker) March 23, 2023

'War' was the highest grossing film of 2019 and was celebrated by audience and social media, which continues to this date. Right from the entry shot to action sequences, Hrithik Roshan’s Kabir created a huge frenzy in theatres then. The Hrithik Roshan - Tiger Shroff starrer also broke records with its television premiere becoming the most viewed film on TV with a staggering 68 million reach, War was the highest rated film ever on TV. A similar hysteria was witnessed during its launch on OTT, and interestingly, with Pathaan releasing on Amazon Prime Video recently, the viewership of War has seen a spike, to draw parallels to the spy universes. Probably director Siddharth Anand already foresaw the success of War during the making, resulting in the idea of Pathaan and ultimately the spy universe.

For the uninitiated, during the making of 'War', director Siddharth Anand proposed the possibility of a spy universe which resulted in the idea of 'Pathaan' and by extension bringing together the three agents- Tiger, Kabir and Pathaan. Recently, the filmmaker revealed the same in an interview adding to the excitement and anticipation for the further instalments of the YRF’s spy universe saying, "This happened just before War was released. We were doing the postproduction of War, and this is just before even the teaser had come out. War came out in October 2019, and this (planning Pathaan) happened around June and July of the same year. Early July is when I told Aditya Chopra that this is what I want to do next and that we should approach Shah Rukh Khan now. Because, I know he was looking for a film at this point in time and why not, just take a chance? We can talk to him with this, we have a broad story, and once he's on, we'll just adapt it to him."

Currently, Siddharth Anand has taken the director's seat for 'Fighter', touted to be India’s first aerial action film that will reunite him with his spy universe agents Kabir and Rubai i.e. Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone. 'Fighter' is all set to release on January 25th 2024, exactly a year after Siddharth Anand's 'Pathaan' released in cinemas.