Tiger Zinda Hai

Tiger Zinda Hai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ali Abbas Zafar
Written by	Neelesh Misra Ali Abbas Zafar Irshad Kamil (lyrics)
Story by	Neelesh Misra Ali Abbas Zafar
Produced by	Aditya Chopra
Starring	Salman Khan Katrina Kaif
Narrated by	Salman Khan
Cinematography	Marcin Laskawiec
Edited by	Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Music by	Songs: Vishal-Shekhar Score: Julius Packiam
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	22 December 2017 (2017-12-22)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹210 crore
Box office	est. ₹565.1 crore

Tiger Zinda Hai (transl. 'Tiger is alive') is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar from a story by himself and Neelesh Misra. A sequel to the 2012 film Ek Tha Tiger, it is the second instalment in the Tiger franchise, and stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. In Tiger Zinda Hai, Tiger (Khan) and Zoya (Kaif), are forced to come out of retirement to save a group of hostages held by a militant terrorist organization in Iraq.

A sequel was conceived following the success of the Ek Tha Tiger, but faced a number of delays after the writer and director of the first film, Kabir Khan, refused to return for a sequel; Zafar was subsequently hired to write and direct, and the film's story draws inspiration from the 2014 abduction of Indian nurses by ISIL. By 2016, pre-production had begun on the film, and filming concluded by 2017, with filming locations including Abu Dhabi, Austria, Greece, and Morocco. Tiger Zinda Hai also features Sajjad Delafrooz, Angad Bedi, Kumud Mishra, Nawab Shah, Ivan Rodrigues, Girish Karnad and Paresh Rawal. With a budget of ₹210 crore, it is the one of the most expensive Hindi films, and one of the most expensive Indian films ever made.

Upon release, Tiger Zinda Hai received generally positive reviews, with praise for its action and Khan's performance, while there was criticism for its length and dialogue. The film has grossed over ₹565.1 crore, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films. It was the highest-grossing Indian film of 2017, and at the 63rd Filmfare Awards, won the Filmfare Award for Best Action. A sequel is currently in development.

Plot

8 years after the events of the previous film, Tiger and Zoya are leading a peaceful life, in a secluded place, away from the prying eyes of both the RAW and ISI. Officially declared dead in the files of by their respective agencies, Tiger and Zoya are now married and have a son, Junior. The world believes that they have seen the last of Tiger and Zoya when danger strikes in the form of a powerful, yet an unknown enemy, throwing their life in a chaos.

During a dark night in Iraq, an American journalist types a warning message to CIA before he is slaughtered by some ISC guards. While carrying a rally in Ikrit, ISC leader Abu Usman is shot in the arm by the Iraqi Army and taken to the city hospital. Abu Usman holds hostage of the Indian and Pakistani nurses and makes the hospital as his base. The US military decides to launch an airstike at the city to kill Usman. Indian nurse Maria calls the Indian Ambassador to Iraq at the Indian Embassy in Baghdad, informing about the incident.

The CIA give RAW chairman Shenoy seven days of time to rescue the nurses after which they will hold the airstrike. Shenoy feels that only Tiger would be able to rescue the nurses. Based on the clues available, Shenoy locates Tiger and Zoya in Innsbruck. Several days later, Tiger is briefed by Shenoy, who informs him about the abduction of nurses. However Shenoy only tells Tiger about the 25 Indian nurses held in Iraq. Though Tiger is reluctant at first, he sets to carry the mission after Zoya's insistence.

Tiger travels to Syria and assembles his own gang of RAW members consisting of Azaan, an expert sniper, Namit, an experienced bomb disposer and Rakesh, a hacker. They reach an oil refinery controlled by Al Amir Baghdawi (Sal Yusuf), ISC's second-in-command, but face difficulty after the arrival of Firdauz aka 'Tohbaan' ('snake' in Arabic), who checks the workers. One day, Tiger rescues Hassan (Jineet Rath), a child who is sent by Usman as a human bomb. That night, Tiger and his gang set a controlled explosion in the refinery and pretend to get burned so that they are taken to the hospital.

En route, they are joined by ISI members Captain Abrar and Captain Javed. Zoya also comes along with Abrar and Javed and reveals to Tiger that along with 25 Indian nurses, 15 Pakistani nurses are held hostage. Tiger then declares that ISI and RAW will work together to rescue the nurses. Meanwhile, Firdauz reveals that he is a secret RAW agent. They go to the hospital while Zoya leaves Tiger to first kill Baghdavi and his troops which she does with the help of some Syrian girls.

At the hospital, Rakesh poisons the food. On the day of the airstrike, Usman's troops are food poisoned. Tiger fights the troops but finds Usman with Zoya which causes him to surrender. Tiger is tortured in a gas chamber but later escapes and rescues the nurses. Azaan dies during the fight. As they escape, Firdauz and Karan who is also a RAW member and Shenoy's most trusted person crashes an oil tanker which kills ISC members.

Tiger stabs and wounds Usman along with Sayem Noman in a fierce encounter and moves to rescue Zoya who insists Tiger to leave her for the sake of Junior. A missile, launched by American drones, blows the chamber. Tiger dresses everyone in the execution robes for a safe passage out of Ikrit. Javed raises Indian and Pakistani flags above the bus with the nurses keeping Azaan's promise while Firdauz takes Usman to a desert and shoots him.

One year later, Shenoy is called by Tiger from Greece. A flashback shows that Tiger broke the chain and rescued Zoya and escaped, knowing that RAW and ISI wouldn't leave them if they returned with the nurses. It's revealed that Tiger and Zoya have adopted Hassan. Though Tiger goes into hiding once again, he assures Shenoy that he will always be there for his country.

Cast

• Salman Khan as RAW Officer Avinash "Tiger" Singh Rathore
• Katrina Kaif as ISI officer Zoya "Zee" Singh Rathore (nee Humaimi), Tiger's wife
• Sajjad Delafrooz as Abu Usman
• Paresh Rawal as Firdaus aka Tohbaan, main RAW agent of Iraq
• Angad Bedi as Namit Khanna, a trained expert in defusing bombs
• Kumud Mishra as Rakesh Prajapati
• Girish Karnad as Shenoy
• Sal Yusuf as Al Amir Baghdawi
• Paresh Pahuja as Azaan Akbar
• Neha Hinge as Maria
• Gavie Chahal as Captain Abrar
• Anupriya Goenka as a nurse, Poorna
• Kashmira Irani as Pakistani Nurse Sana
• Anant Vidhaat Sharma as RAW Agent, Karan Rao
• Ivan Rodrigues as India's Ambassador to Iraq
• Siddhartha Basu as Indian Defence Minister.
• Anjana Om Kashyap as Herself, an Indian TV reporter
• Danish Bhatt as Captain Javed
• Rohit KaduDeshmukh as Captain Gautam
• Khalida Jan Touray as Pakistani Nurse Naghma
• Nawab Shah as Pawan
• Zachary Coffin as Gary
• Casey Shannon as Sam Jacobs
• Najmeddin Al Hadad as Hakim
• Vibhoutee Sharma as Jiya
• Sartaaj Kakkar as Junior
• Jineet Rath as Hasaan
• Nimash Dulantha

Production

Filming took place in Abu Dhabi, Austria, Greece and Morocco. The last song of the movie was shot in the Aegean island of Naxos, Greece in October 2017. Iranian actor Sajjad Delafrooz was roped in to play the role of Abu Usman, leader of terrorist organisation ISC. Sajjad Delafrooz had worked in the 2015 Hindi film Baby.

The film's budget is reportedly ₹210 crore ($28.34 million), including ₹140 crore ($18.89 million) for the production and the rest for fees, publicity and marketing. This would make it one of the most expensive Yash Raj Films productions, along with Dhoom 3, Sultan and Thugs of Hindostan.

Marketing and release

The film's trailer was released on 6 November 2017. Within 24 hours, it broke many records for Hindi film trailers on YouTube, with more than 29 million views, 480 thousand likes and 250 thousand shares. On 11 November, it became the most liked film trailer on YouTube with 700 thousand likes, surpassing Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) then. The record was later surpassed by the trailer of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) with about 2 million likes.

The film was released on 22 December 2017 worldwide. The film received U/A certificate from Central Board of Film Certification. Despite having a song featuring Pakistani singer Atif Aslam, the film has not been given No-Objection Certificate by Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan, stating the reason as was said for Ek Tha Tiger that "The image of Pakistan and its law enforcement agencies" have been compromised.

Tiger Zinda Hai was in controversy on its release and faced protests from Valmiki community, when Salman Khan allegedly made a casteist slur, where he compared his dancing skills to a sanitation worker, "or "bhangi" in a dance show. Shilpa Shetty also laughed along with him, and said that she also looked like one. Valmiki group is made up of a cluster of dalit communities — a few of whom are Bhangi, Mehtar, Chuhra, Lal Beghi and Halalkhor. Valmiki community filed a legal case against both actors for hurting their sentiments.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena also unsuccessfully protested urging Mumbai multiplexes to promote Marathi film Deva instead of Tiger Zinda Hai. Their leaders raised issue about the loss of screens to Marathi films like Deva and Ek Atrangi which released alongside.

Critical reception

Tiger Zinda Hai opened to mostly positive reviews. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4.5 stars, and said "Salman is the lifeline, the real treasure of Tiger Zinda Hai. He sinks his teeth into the character and, in several sequences, peels off the mask of super-stardom and brings the actor to the fore. Katrina is in solid form, in action sequences specifically commands attention." Umesh Punwani of Koimoi gave 4 stars, and said "Katrina Kaif is brilliant! She has very few dialogues, and no that's not the reason she's good. Working amazingly well with her expressions, she has turned into an athlete for this one. Performing few major action sequences, she is flawless." Aarti Jhurani of The National gave 4 stars, and said "While logic is not a very important factor in Khan's films, emotions certainly are, and the director made sure to hit all the soft spots – from patriotism to Indo-Pakistan bonding to a multitude of cheesy dialogues – which is a smart move, and sure to bring in both Indian and Pakistani audiences." Lasyapriya Sundaram of The Times of India gave 3.5 stars, and said "The film is visually stunning in parts and Salman Khan plays Tiger with roaring confidence and dialogues packed with punch. Of course, his fans get a true-blue Salman Khan moment when he bares his torso." Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave 3.5 stars, and said "It may look like a Hollywood action thriller, but at its heart, Tiger Zinda Hai is an unabashed masala movie. The heady mixture of an international looking action film and the regular tropes of Hindi cinema make it a pleasing watch."

Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle gave 3 stars and said "Ali Abbas Zafar smoothly takes Ek Tha Tiger franchise ahead by telling a real story and inserting a whole lot of drama and thrill. The film also touches upon relationships between India and Pakistan but subtly. The biggest hiccup of the film is its length." Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave 3 stars, and said "The film has some thrilling action, while logic and subtlety are sacrificed at the altar of spectacle and sentiment. Katrina gets some terrific action moments and she executes them well, but make no mistake, the heavy lifting here is left to Salman Khan, and he's clearly up for the challenge." Richa Barua of Asianet News gave the film a rating of 4.5 stars, and states that the film "keeps you glued to the seats."

Raja Sen of NDTV India gave 2.5 stars, and said "Tiger Zinda Hai breaks for intermission at a point when most self-respecting action films would have rushed into the climax. Long before the finish eventually rolled around, I found myself wishing Tiger would croak just so I could make it out alive." Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave 2.5 stars, and said "It's better for the filmmakers to set a character trajectory that matches the star's current image rather than basking in the glory of the past." Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave 2.5 stars, stating that both Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif delivered fun with equal parts swag, silliness and schmaltz. Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express gave 2.5 stars, and said "Only once in a while, the film gives in and provides us a killing which sobers us up, but very quickly it's back to the base, with Bhai taking over, and everyone including Nurse Poorna and Zoya making way for him. But you can see she enjoys kicking butt: you wish she had more to do." Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "Tiger Zinda Hai is fun in bits and spurts but there isn’t enough buoyancy to make it a slam dunk."

Box office

Tiger Zinda Hai made a new non-holiday record in India as it collected ₹34.1 crore nett on its first day. It went on to collect ₹35.30 crore nett gross on second day. The film recorded the second highest day of all time (after third day of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion's Hindi-dub) on its third day with nett of ₹45.53 crore and the highest ever for the Hindi film industry. With three day nett collections of over ₹1.14 billion, Tiger Zinda Hai had the second highest opening weekend of all time (after Bahubali 2: The Conclusion) and the highest opening weekend of all time in the Bollywood film industry. Tiger Zinda Hai netted Rs 154 crore in its first four days in India.

Tiger Zinda Hai grossed $2 million in two days, $450,000 on day one in US/Canada and around £150,000 in the UK. The film grossed $7 million in its opening weekend in overseas, including $2,535,825 in US/Canada. The film grossed ₹190 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. As of 25 February 2018, the film has grossed US$87.32 million (₹569 crore) worldwide, including ₹434.82 crore (US$67.11 million) in India, and US$20.3 million (₹128.9 crore) overseas.

Soundtrack

Tiger Zinda Hai
Soundtrack album by Vishal–Shekhar
Released	7 December 2017 (2017-12-07)
Recorded	2017
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	25:29
Language	Hindi
Label	YRF Music Divo
Producer	Meghdeep Bose, Abhijit Nalani
Vishal–Shekhar chronology
Befikre (2016) Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) Bharat (2019)
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube
Singles from Tiger Zinda Hai
"Swag Se Swagat" Released: 19 November 2017 "Dil Diyan Gallan" Released: 26 November 2017

The music of the film is composed by Vishal-Shekhar while lyrics are penned by Irshad Kamil. The background score is composed by Julius Packiam. The first song of the film titled as Swag Se Swagat which is sung by Vishal Dadlani and Neha Bhasin and produced by Meghdeep Bose released on 19 November 2017. It has become the most-liked Bollywood song on YouTube and the fastest Bollywood song to cross 100 million views on YouTube. The second song of the film, Dil Diyan Gallan which is sung by Atif Aslam was released by Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif at Big Boss Season 11 on 26 November 2017. The album was released on 7 December 2017 by YRF Music. The Arabic version of "Swag Se Swagat" was sung by Rabih Baroud and Brigitte Yaghi.

By 8 February 2018, the album had crossed 1 billion streams on music streaming platforms. As of 13 April 2019, songs from the album have over 1.5 billion views combined on YouTube, making it the most-streamed Bollywood soundtrack album on the platform.

All tracks are written by Irshad Kamil

Track listing

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Swag Se Swagat"	Vishal Dadlani & Neha Bhasin	03:56
2.	"Dil Diyan Gallan"	Atif Aslam	04:20
3.	"Zinda Hai" (Tiger Theme by Julius Packiam)	Sukhwinder Singh, Rap by Raftaar	04:14
4.	"Daata Tu"	Shreya Ghoshal	04:14
5.	"Tera Noor"	Jyoti Nooran	04:42
6.	"Dil Diyan Gallan" (Unplugged)	Neha Bhasin	04:03
Total length:			25:29

Awards and nominations

Date of Ceremony	Award	Category	Recipient(s) and nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
20 January 2018	Filmfare Awards	Best Action	Tom Struthers	Won
28 January 2018	Mirchi Music Awards	Album of The Year	Vishal-Shekhar, Irshad Kamil	Nominated
22 June 2018	IIFA Awards	Best Cinematography	Marcin Laskawiec, Usc	Won
		Best Sound Design	Dileep Subramaniam, Ganesh Gangadharan (YRF Studios)	Won

External links

• Tiger Is Alive at IMDb
• Tiger Zinda Hai at Rotten Tomatoes
• Tiger Zinda Hai at Bollywood Hungama

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