Thugs of Hindostan

In September 2016, Yash Raj Films' next project titled Thugs of Hindostan was announced, and would feature Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. The lead actress was not yet finalised at the time.[17] The film was initially titled only Thug; it was set for a release on Diwali in 2018.[18] Hrithik Roshan, who was initially approached with the film's leading role, suggested some changes to the script. The film producer Aditya Chopra agreed; meanwhile, Acharya approached Khan with the script, who agreed to do the film with no changes to the storyline.[19] Later, in November 2016, Khan also requested that the script be reworked, particularly the character of the leading actress, and put the project on hold.[20] Meanwhile, he grew his hair and beard for his look in the film.[21]

By February 2017, Khan had prepared his look for the film.[22] In the same month, Shraddha Kapoor gave a costume look test and audition for the film.[23] In March 2017, it was reported that Khan suggested Fatima Sana Shaikh's name for a role in the film; while denying rumours of casting, Shaikh expressed her eagerness to work in the project.[24] In May 2017, Shaikh was confirmed to play a role in the film, with her audition look being revealed.[25] She replaced Kapoor.[26] Kaif was confirmed to star in the film on Yash Raj Films' official website.[26] Khan, Bachchan and Acharya met during the month of May to discuss script changes.[27] Contrary to initial reports, the film is not based on Philip Meadows Taylor's 1839 novel Confessions of a Thug (which was about Indian thugs); the film tells a fictional story based on historical events. Acharya links the misunderstanding to the word thug appearing in both works.[28] Khan also denied rumours of Thugs of Hindostan being inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, stating in May 2017 that they are both simply action-adventure productions, among many others in the action-adventure film genre, such as the Indiana Jones series.[29]

Thugs of Hindostan is Khan's second time collaborating with Vijay Krishna Acharya and Katrina Kaif, after Dhoom 3 (2013).[30] It also marked the first collaboration between Khan and Bachchan.[31] Bachchan and Khan were supposed to star together in the Indra Kumar-directorial Rishta, planned during the late 1990s, but the project was shelved.[28] Besides Roshan, Jackie Shroff, Alia Bhatt, and Deepika Padukone were to be a part of the film, but turned down the role.[32][16] For his look, Khan also underwent permanent ear and nose piercing.[33]

In making Thugs of Hindostan, Acharya wanted to give a twist to period drama films and thus made what he considered "an irreverent film which has a chapter that is not very noble".[28] He made the film a visual "spectacle", considering the difficulty in bringing audiences to theatres.[28] Khan said his character was someone "who cannot be trusted at all – [so it's the] very opposite of Dangal ... He's a very slippery character. He has no scruples at all – for money he can sell his mother out. He's like that."[34] Kaif said that she does not have much action to do in the film, compared to her previous action roles, in particular Tiger Zinda Hai (2017).[35] Bachchan wore iron armour for playing his character, the second time he did so after his 1988 film Shahenshah.[36] In addition, he also wore a pagri, grew long hair and learned sword-fighting.[28] Most of Bachchan's action sequences were situated in rainy settings.[28]

Mehrangarh Fort, situated in Rajasthan, where a large portion of sequences were filmed.

Thugs of Hindostan's estimated production budget is ₹3 billion (US$43.87 million), making it the most expensive Bollywood film.[37] It was initially planned to be produced on a budget of ₹900 million, but the budget was overrun while filming.[38] Filming commenced on 5 June 2017 in Malta.[31] Two ships were constructed in Malta for the purpose of filming; shooting was heavily guarded to prevent leaks from sets.[39] The ships were built by over 1000 people working together and weighed 200,000 kg each.[40] By 28 June 2017, Bachchan finished filming his first schedule in Malta.[41] In middle July, Khan took a break from filming and went on a vacation to Italy.[42]

Chopra, who was not impressed with the film's action sequences filmed in Malta, had them filmed again in Yash Raj Films' studio.[43] It was reported that busy with filming for Thugs of Hindostan, Khan would be unable to promote his film Secret Superstar (2017) properly.[44] However, in October 2017, Khan took a break from filming to promote his film.[45] In August 2017, Bachchan fractured his rib cage while shooting, but had to continue filming since the schedule was tight.[45] The film's dance sequence, which featured Bachchan, among others, and choreographed by Prabhu Deva was filmed in October 2017.[46] When filming was not taking place, the cast, along with the crew, wore face masks to avoid contracting the common cold.[47] In September 2017, photographers of the Filmfare magazine captured Khan while filming, and leaked his look.[48] An upset Khan increased security surveillance on film sets.[49] The same month, Bachchan's look was also leaked online.[50] Khan stated that "this shouldn't have happened" and it foiled plans for later looking releases.[51]

Filming also took place in Thailand, from 6 December 2017.[52] The schedule was wrapped up on 26 December 2017.[53] Some sequences were also shot in Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur.[54] After Bachchan experienced discomfort on set, a team of doctors visited him in Jodhpur. His wife, Jaya Bachchan stated that his heavy costumes hurt his back and neck.[55] The stunts aggravated his pre-existing neck and shoulder pain, which was a result of past injuries from stunts he did for filming in the 1970-80s.[56] Bachchan stated that he was back to normal.[57] The film's shooting was put on a short hiatus as a result of his injury.[58] He resumed filming on 13 March 2018.[59][60] The film's climax sequence was filmed in Jodhpur, Rajasthan in late March 2018.[61][62]

A special edition of the film released in China on 28 December 2018, edited by Aamir Khan. It had been heavily re-worked, with significant changes compared to the Indian version.[13] The Chinese edition released with a 120-minute run time, which is 44 minutes shorter than the Indian version's 164-minute run time.[63] Khan reportedly added, removed and re-ordered a number of scenes, made frame-by-frame edits to various scenes, and re-adjusted the narrative structure with a more compact, straightforward plot.[13]

In contrast to the Indian version giving balanced screen time to the three main characters (played by Khan, Bachchan and Sheikh), the China edition instead focuses mainly on Khan's character, with the roles of Bachchan and Sheikh being cut short while Khan's role is extended with deleted scenes that didn't make it into the Indian version. These changes are partly in response to Chinese audience expectations, to capitalise on Khan's popularity in China, and to reduce elements from the film that were not well received in India.[64][65] The China edition cut a number of slow-motion scenes, but still kept most of the song-and-dance sequences to maintain a festive atmosphere for Christmas.[13]

In November 2018, the official Hindi trailer crossed 100 million views on YouTube.[74] It became the first Indian trailer to cross 100 million views on the site, and was the YouTube's most-watched Indian trailer of all time,[75][76][77][78] up until it was surpassed by Zero's trailer.[79]

In April 2018, the producers announced plans to release the film in China, where Khan's previous films were successful, including 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014), Dangal (2016) and Secret Superstar (2017).[80] Chinese distributors decided not to release the film in China on the same day as India.[81] The Chinese censorship process takes about two months, after which Khan plans to release the film there in January 2019.[82] Chinese distribution company E Star Films initially agreed to acquire the theatrical rights,[83] with a minimum guarantee of $20 million (₹145 crore) from China.[84] After the film's Indian release, however, it was later changed to a revenue-sharing deal between E Star Films and Yash Raj Films.[85] The film is released in China on 28 December 2018, with a Chinese title that roughly translates as "Indian Thugs".[63]

For the film's promotion, Aamir Khan toured China for ten days, starting from 16 December 2018. He toured eight major cities, including Sanya, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing.[86] He was invited to the first Hainan International Film Festival, where he shared the stage with Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan, Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Hollywood film stars including Johnny Depp and Mads Mikkelsen.[87] Khan also presented the festival's top prize for Dying to Survive.[88] The film's Chinese premiere was held at the Beijing Film Academy on 24 December 2018.[89]

Thugs of Hindostan had the biggest morning occupancy for an Indian film in 2018, with 65-70% of the seats booked.[84] Its first day collection in India was the highest for any Hindi film, at ₹52.25 crore nett[96] (₹63.5 crore gross),[97] surpassing the previous opening day records held by Happy New Year (₹44.97 crore), Baahubali 2 (₹41 crore), and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (₹40.35 crore).[96][98][99] On the second day, the film's nett collection dropped to ₹29.25 crore.[100] Its two-day total was an estimated ₹81.50 crore nett in India,[101] the highest for any Hindi film in its first two days.[102] In three days, the film's domestic collection was ₹105 crore nett,[103] becoming Amitabh Bachchan's first film to net ₹100 crore in India[104] (without taking inflation into account). By the end of its opening weekend on 11 November 2018, the film's domestic collections were ₹123 crore nett[105] and ₹157.69 crore gross.[91] It surpassed Dhoom 3 to become Aamir Khan's biggest opening weekend in India,[106] and surpassed Sanju to become the highest opening weekend grosser of 2018.[107] Thugs of Hindostan also became India's fourth highest opening weekend grosser of all time, after Sultan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Baahubali 2.[108] In its opening week, the film's collections in India were ₹140.4 crore nett,[109] and ₹180 crore gross,[92] becoming the fourth highest opening week grosser of 2018, after Sanju, Padmaavat and Race 3.[109]

The box-office takings, however, dropped significantly after receiving bad reviews, and the film made only ₹145 crore in India after 11 days. It resulted in significant losses for theatre owners, who demanded refunds from the sub-distributor of Yash Raj Films.[110] As of 26 November 2018, the film's collections in India stand at ₹151.19 crore nett and ₹193.83 crore gross.[92]

Overseas, the film grossed US$6.4 million (₹46.66 crore) in its opening weekend,[111] including US$2.22 million in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf,[112] US$1.45 million in the United States and Canada,[113] and £497,663 ($681,730) in the United Kingdom.[112] It had the year's third highest-grossing opening weekend overseas, after Padmaavat and Sanju.[111] In its opening week, the film grossed US$7.8 million (₹56.8 crore) overseas.[92] As of 26 November 2018, the film grossed $9.5 million (₹69.18 crore) overseas.[92]

In China, where it released on 28 December 2018 at 19:00 China time,[114] the film grossed $1.78 million (₹13 crore) within the last five hours of opening day, entering the daily box office chart at number three (behind Chinese film Kill Mobile and Hollywood film Aquaman), but with the second highest per-screen average (behind Kill Mobile).[115] In China, the film grossed $4.78 million in its opening weekend,[116] and $8.21 million in its opening week.[117]

Thugs of Hindostan received generally negative reviews from critics.[118][119] While the performances of Bachchan and Khan drew praise, both Acharya's direction and screenplay were criticised.[120]

Rachit Gupta of The Times of India gave the film two and a half stars out of five and shares the sentiments of most reviewers: "[It] looks like a million bucks, [but] it doesn't feel the same way". He praised the production design and cinematography, but criticised the lack of suspense and "the predictable nature of the writing... [which] doesn't help the movie at all". The visual effects were commended, but the pace and running time was criticised.[69] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the film two and a half stars out of five and called it "big, bloated, [and] bombastic", asserting that it "banks solely upon action and spectacle for impact". He criticised the screenplay and budget's inability to raise the film. He found that Shaikh played some sequences well, while women were overall less represented. He felt it was "ultimately too tacky and unconvincing to lay legitimate claims to being India's answer to Pirates of the Caribbean".[121] Nandini Ramath of Scroll.in labelled Thugs of Hindostan a "trite, uninvolving" film. She felt sequences filmed in the sea were "sluggishly directed", and "the ones on land fare no better". The action scenes were tagged "flat and uninvolving" and the background score as "insistently ponderous."[122]

In a positive review, Rohini Nair of Firstpost appreciated the use of metaphorical allegories in the film and praised Bachchan and Khan's chemistry. She wrote of Kaif: "She writhes and contorts in sequinned hotpants as the plot builds towards its climax". Nair wrote that "all is forgiven in the rip-roaring, all muskets blazing finale sequence of the film". She raises expectations for a sequel.[123] Gupta praised the performances of both Bachchan and Khan; Khan for his "comedy and banter" and Bachchan for his "heroics and the intense dialogues". The ensemble cast, was, however, condemned.[69] Chatterjee commended Khan and Bachchan for bringing "everything that they have", in his review.[121] Commenting on the uneven distribution of screen time, Ramath stated Bachchan "lumbers through the movie and looks exhausted". Khan's chemistry was praised, and the scenes were stated to "came to life" with him with his dialogues.[122]

Harish Wankhede's another positive review in the Indian Express provides a subaltern perspective to the film. He argues that "Thugs of Hindostan thus brings the peripheral, the lumpen proletariat and other degraded groups centre-stage in building the foundations of the new nation. It gives the film a subaltern-satirical Dalit perspective."[124]

Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2 stars out of 5, commenting "Not every film needs to be uplifting, inspiring, or even fun. But watching a movie shouldn’t feel like you’re serving a jail term either."[125]

Taran Adarsh, film analyst for Bollywood Hungama, opined the film was "[a] King-sized [d]isappointment." He felt several good moments in the first half of the film, were hindered by the "formula-ridden plot, screenplay of convenience, and shoddy direction".[126] Writing for the Hindustan Times, Raja Sen remarked that the film is “Pirates Of The Caribbean without pirates or Caribbean”.[127] Shubra Gupta of The Indian Express termed the "a massive cherry-picking enterprise from big entertainers of the past, many of them YRF's own", and referred to it as "a boring affair". She criticised the screenplay and the plot, and noted that the characters' interactions with each other felt heavy-handed". Gupta, however, praised Khan: "[W]hile he's around, it's bearable. Just about".[128] Ankur Pathak of Huffington Post India stated that the film "was so awful that it felt like a satire of itself". He termed the film "a vanity project that tries to cash in on the profitable wave triggered by the Baahubali movies".[129] Rahul Desai of Film Companion sums up the retort: "[It is] the Bollywood manifestation of Halloween – an amusing, self-gratifying but altogether pointless fancy-dress ball designed to trick audiences under the guise of treating them".[130]

Among overseas critics, Joe Leydon of Variety gave it a generally positive review, stating the "expensive and exuberant Bollywood masala delivers the goods as a satisfying popcorn epic."[131] Mike McCahill of The Guardian rated the film three out of five stars, referring to it as an enjoyable irreverent romp.[132] Global Times notes that the film has received a mixed reception in China, but that its Chinese reception is generally better than its Indian reception.