Actor Kamal Hassan’s Indian which released in 1996 under the direction of Shankar with actors Manisha Koirala, Urmila Matondkar, and Sukanya, is one of the milestone projects in the actor’s career. By early 2017 actor Kamal Hassan pleasantly surprised his fans by announcing that there is going to be a sequel for Indian. An ensemble cast which had Siddharth, Priya Bhavani Shankar, Rakul Preet Singh, and Kajal Aggarwal was brought on board for the project. Unfortunately, ever since the film went on floors, it was marred with controversies. Actor Kamal Hassan and Shankar had differences which delayed the project. When they sorted it out and went to shoot, covid hindered the progress. Then in an unfortunate accident an associate director lost his life on the sets.
After successfully crossing all the hurdles the entertainer hit theaters amidst massive expectations earlier this year in July. The movie opened to radical negative reviews and had a disastrous reception among the audience. For the worse, it turned into a troll material.
Director Shankar set aside all that negativity and quietly went on to helm a venture in Telugu titled Game Changer. Actors Ram Charan, S J Suryah, Kiara Advani, and Anjali have played the lead roles. The entertainer is poised to hit the screens on 10th of January 2025. The storyteller has now begun to promote the flick. In a recent promotional event of Game Changer, he was asked about the negative reviews on Indian 2. Responding to it he said, “I honestly did not expect negative reviews on that scale. I tried to pack a simple yet effective message, ‘If the home is corruption free, the nation will be clean’. On that note I am happy. Although the implementation and the method to do it is significant. It could have been better.”
Pointing to an incident in Telangana of a woman engineer filmed by her husband while collecting bribe, he expressed, “The film had an impact on people. The incident was called the ‘Indian effect’. This is what we wanted to deliver in Indian 2. It happened. I am happy about it.” Speaking further he stated, “Following Indian 2. I was focused on delivering good content in Game Changer. The drama has come out well. It will be racy and action packed. I am confident that this will be a landmark venture for Ram Charan.”
Apart from actors Kamal Hassan, Siddharth, Priya Bhavani Shankar, and Rakul Preet Singh, cast of Indian 2 also had actors S J Suryah, Bobby Simha, Vivek, Samuthirakani, Kalidas Jayaram, Nedumudi Venu, Delhi Ganesh, Manobala, Jagan, Deepa Shankar, Rishikanth, Gulshan Grover, Zakir Hussain, Piyush Mishra, G Marimuthu, Vinod Sagar, Yograj Singh, Renuka, Kalyani Natarajan, Thambi Ramaiah, C Ranganathan, Ravi Venkatraman, and Imman Annachi. The musical division of the flick was handled by musician Anirudh Ravichander. Cinematographers Ravi Varman and R Rathnavelu was behind camera for the entertainer. Editor A Sreekar Prasad had edited the venture. Stunt master Stunt Silva had fashioned action moves for the flick. Art director T Muthuraj had erected sets. Indian 2 was produced by Subaskaran Allirajah under the production company Lyca Productions in association with Udhayanidhis Stalin for the production company Red Giant Movies.
On the professional front, story teller Shankar is eagerly waiting for the release of Indian 3.
