Even director Siddharth Anand was amused by the fan theories. “It’s so heartwarming and it shows what deep connects our films have with the audience that they come up with theories that filmmakers haven’t even thought of. It is so validating, it just gives us so much happiness. And honestly, if they’re so creative, I want to call them to my office and ask them to write my stories. (laughs)” he said to ETimes.
Screenplay writer Shridhar Raghavan, who has also written the screenplay of War and Tiger 3, too has been reading a lot of such stories on social media. Reacting to the same, he said, “In the next couple of films, we’ll get a clearer sense of the rules of this universe, and what the relationships of the universe are. There are quite a few ideas that Aditya Chopra has. But right now, it’s way too early to talk about it.”
Ask him if he already knew during War that Adi is planning a spy universe, he says, “I didn’t. Everything was conceptualised in Aditya Chopra’s head. I was approached as a screenwriter for War by Adi sir and Sid. They already had a story, they had an idea of a character and a plotline in place. I came in and wrote the script, I added some value to it. Then they said, ‘We have this plan, we want to do this film.’ Gradually I started understanding that there’s a larger picture, because then he asked me to do Tiger 3 also. He had conceptualised the idea of using multiple agents and spies – male and female, old and young, there are more to come. Younger, older… we want to crossover and play around. So when he told me, I was fascinated and I was excited.”
Raghavan has also been appointed by Aditya Chopra to mentor the team of writers working on the spy universe. “The primary creative heart of this whole thing would actually be Adi Chopra, simply because I wasn’t there in Tiger 1 and 2,” he says. “The universe began with the films he’s been creating. So I am involved in the future projects. And I will definitely be mentoring and looking after this thing, but in conjunction with him. There will be more writers, more directors working with that, because when you building the universe, it’s a large enough thing. We want to tell large stories, small stories, comic book stories, different tones, different characters. We want to revisit characters people may have thought are done and dusted, we may go backwards and tell some stories about somebody. And so there are so many options. “
Raghavan believes in focussing on his work and enjoying the process than the outcome. “Honestly when we are writing, we are not thinking about anything larger, or the business,” he explains. “We are just wanting to write a taut, tense, cool thriller. I’ve been in the business for 15-20 years. But this is the first time I am working with Shah Rukh Khan. So I was looking forward to writing the script which delivered and made him feel good. I wanted to write a film which worked for Sid, for Adi Sir, for Mr Khan. So I was delighted. Foreseeing the audience reaction, you ask any writer, jab hum likhte hain at that stage we are all hoping that it will be a blockbuster, but we don’t honestly know. You can just hope and pray and put in your best and enjoy the process. Luckily I am working with people I have a terrific relationship with. I just completely relate with all the people, the stars were very down to earth, they were very cool and they gave us all the time we wanted for discussions. So by the time it ended, it was already a superhit for me regardless of how it did. I am talking about 3 years ago when I finished writing, I already felt wonderful. And now that it’s connected with the audience, I am ecstatic. When my kids watch it in theatre and look at me with a certain, ‘Wow, you wrote that!’ I feel good. I feel terrific.”
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