'John Abraham’s Character Warrants A Prequel'; Siddharth Anand Speaks On Pathaan, War 2, And Spy Universe

Siddharth Anand is ecstatic about the enormous success of his masterpiece, Pathaan, which stars Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham. YRF Spy Universe, which features characters like Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan), Tiger (Salman Khan), Zoya (Katrina Kaif), Kabir (Hrithik Roshan), and Rubai (Deepika Padukone), was also launched with the release of the movie. “After the success of War, I had a chat with Adi (Aditya Chopra) on expanding this universe and do some crossover,” said Siddharth. The director continues, “I don’t think this was in the back of anyone’s mind when the 2 Tiger films were made or when War was made. It is after the success of War that we thought of a universe. With the story of Pathaan, we thought this could spin into one as we already have 3 spies with scope for many more.” In the near future, Sid will become the first director to have a film in the 400 cr. club and 500 cr. club at the box office. Currently, he has two films in the 300 cr. club. Siddharth confirms that the crossing between Tiger and Pathaan was the idea of producer Aditya Chopra. “It was Adi’s idea to do a crossover of Salman in Pathaan. We could have got Hrithik or any other actor on board too, but to have Salman and Shah Rukh in a film doing action has not happened before. I think the last when they were doing action together was in 1996 with Karan Arjun. Fortunately, Adi had the IP of Tiger to do this crossover and the result is fantastic,” Siddharth added. While Shah Rukh Khan's portrayal of the film's lead had the theatres packed and is poised to become the greatest grosser in Hindi film history, there has also been discussion regarding John Abraham's portrayal as Jim, the film's antagonist. Is there a movie on Jim's backstory? “It should be, but it’s too early to talk about anything. I feel, Jim’s character does warrant a prequel,” he assured. There is a scene in the movie Pathaan where Jim (John Abraham) and Kabir (Hrithik Roshan) discuss their former connection. Will this equation be covered in the prequel? “Ya, why not, anything can happen. It’s a universe and you can do anything with the characters – it’s a playground. You can have a prequel to Jim.. oh wait, what if Jim is not dead? What if there’s a harness that pulls a parachute?”, he smiled, allowing everyone to concoct their own conspiracy idea. There have been numerous rumours about Hrithik Roshan's presence in Pathaan as Kabir from War throughout the past year. Could there perhaps be a connection between Kabir and Pathaan? “Obviously, there was a thought back then, but since we just started amalgamating this universe, it’s too early to bring everyone together. There should be a little thirst of getting this combination, but of course, this crossover will happen,” he concluded.