Without Tiger Shroff On Board, Director Siddharth Anand Might Have 'Scrapped' War

Siddharth Anand shared this picture. (Image courtesy: itssiddharthanand)

War director Siddharth Anand revealed that he might have "scrapped" the action film if Tiger Shroff "hadn't done it." In an interview with news agency PTI, the filmmaker said that it "would have been tough" for him to move ahead with the project if Tiger Shroff had said no to the film as there is "nobody, who could replace Tiger." Speaking about War cast, Siddharth Anand said: "The first choice was Hrithik because we share a great equation. Post Bang Bang!, I've been writing something for him. Fortunately for me, he loved the script. I knew if Hrithik is in the film, the protege can be no one else but Tiger," reported PTI.

He added: "If Tiger hadn't done the film, it would have been be tough for me to make this film. I may have just scrapped the idea to rewrite something else. There is nobody, who could replace Tiger in the film."

War showcases the story of special agent Kabir (played by Hrithik) gone rogue and Khalid (played by Tiger), whose job is to bring him down. The film marks Tiger Shroff's first film with Hrithik Roshan.

In the interview, Siddharth Anand added that he got the idea of making War back in 2015-16 when he was travelling and had developed a habit of reading spy thrillers. "During 2015-2016, I travelled a lot and was intrigued by the genre of spy thrillers and I picked up a lot of books of top novelists. The idea of the film came from there. It opened my imagination to conflicts, characterisation, drama and plot points," he told PTI and added that the film's screenplay was a tough one to crack. The script has been written by Siddharth and Shridhar Raghavan, who has worked in films such as Dum Maaro Dum, Family, Bluffmaster! and Khakee.

When asked about the difficulties he faced while filming War, Siddharth said: "The challenge was to showcase elements which don't give a feeling of deja vu. It's important for a thriller because you just have that many plot points left. We knew we have the top stars of the country, great visuals and songs. So what mattered was what's on paper."

Meanwhile, the filmmaker also shared how he managed to shoot action sequences for War, which is touted as one of the biggest action films of recent times in Bollywood. He said he collaborated with four action directors and made it their responsibility to deliver perfect shots. "It was important to identify key action sequences and bring in different action directors and make it their responsibility. We brought in four action directors and gave them four set pieces so they could push themselves and bring in their take. It was also kind of competitive because they knew someone else is doing the other job. That worked out very well for the film," Siddharth told PTI.

Siddharth also revealed that the much awaited action thriller War promises breath-taking visuals, which are distinct from popular Hollywood action films. He shared the details about the film's shooting locales and said: "In action, you've only that many things you can do. There's a bike, car and plane chase. So the setting matters the most because you've seen all of this in films. So we set the bike chase in a mountain so that there's a thrust for speed."

"We had a car chase in the Arctic on ice. It was a challenge from a visual spectacle bit. I'm a very visual director so the locations become a character in my films. We had to find these locations and make them unique," he added.

Earlier, Siddharth Anand had told news agency IANS that one major chase sequence in War was filmed across seven countries. "We have shot Hrithik and Tiger chasing and hunting against each other in seven different countries," he said.

War has been shot in Portugal, Italy, Sweden and Finland among others. It also features Vaani Kapoor. The film is slated to release on October 2 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.