Jawan (film)

Jawan (transl. Soldier) is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film co-written and directed by Atlee (in his Hindi film debut). It is produced by Gauri Khan and Gaurav Verma under Red Chillies Entertainment. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role as lookalike father and son alongside Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara (in her Hindi film debut). In the film, Azad, the jailer of a woman's prison, is a vigilante who recruits inmates and commits acts that shed light on corruption in India.

Principal photography commenced in September 2021 with filming taking place in Pune, Mumbai, Goregaon, Hyderabad, Chennai, Rajasthan and Aurangabad. The film's soundtrack and musical score were composed by Anirudh Ravichander, with cinematography by G. K. Vishnu and editing by Ruben. A few scenes were simultaneously re-shot for the Tamil version of the film, particularly Khan's appearance in the song "Zinda Banda" ("Vandha Edam" in Tamil), Sethupathi's portions and scenes featuring Yogi Babu.

Jawan was theatrically released on 7 September 2023 in standard, IMAX, 4DX coinciding with Janmashtami. It received acclaim from critics for cast performances, direction, action sequences, musical score, and cinematography. Grossing over ₹1,100 crore at the box office, becoming the film emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of 2023. As of 2026, it ranks as the seventh highest-grossing Indian film. At the 69th Filmfare Awards, the film received 14 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director. At the 71st National Film Awards, the film won 2 awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Khan) and Best Female Playback Singer (Shilpa Rao for "Chaleya").

Plot

In the late 1990s, somewhere in Northeast India, a man is thrown off a plane into a river. The man is found unconscious by a tribal group, whose leader takes him in and cares for him for several months. When the tribe is attacked, the man wakes up and saves them. He becomes the tribe's messiah but is revealed to have lost his memory. A boy in the tribe promises that he will one day find out the man's identity.

Years later in Mumbai, 2023, Azad, an IPS officer who is the jailer of Belamvada women's prison, hijacks a Mumbai Metro train with a group of six inmates: Lakshmi, Eeram, Iskra, Kalki, Helana, and Janvi, holding the passengers hostage. When a police officer captures one of the group, Azad ties him up but doesn't hurt him. Azad also shoots a female hostage. He negotiates with Force One officer Narmada Rai to ask the Agriculture Minister to send ₹40,000 crores in exchange for the hostages' lives. During this time, he narrates to a passenger named Alia the tragedy behind the suicide of Kalki's father, a poor farmer, who was harassed by the bank over his inability to pay loans to the hostages. Kalee Gaikwad, a global arms dealer, learns that Alia, who is his daughter, is one of the captives and agrees to fund the deal. Azad plans to donate the money toward the loan waiver of 7,00,000 impoverished farmers in the country. It is also revealed that the hostage shot was secretly one of the hijackers and was not wounded at all. Azad and his gang transfer the funds into the farmers' bank accounts and escape. Through Alia, Azad reveals his name as Vikram Rathore to Kalee.

Narmada's daughter, Suji, has been searching for a husband for her mother and is impressed by Azad, who lives with his adopted mother, retired jailer Kaveri Amma. Upon her daughter's request, Narmada meets Azad. After sharing their views and understanding each other, they get engaged, although Narmada is unaware of his alter ego.

Azad and his gang kidnap the Health Minister and demand better infrastructure at a dilapidated government hospital in exchange for the Health Minister's life. Azad reveals that Eeram, who was a doctor at that hospital, demanded oxygen cylinders for children suffering from encephalitis, but was denied the supply due to negligence and corruption by the Health Secretary, who is forced to reveal that Eeram was never at fault. The infrastructure is immediately upgraded and Azad and his gang escape again.

After they get married, Narmada discovers Azad's alter ego, and Kalee's brother Manish also uncovers this secret, leading to the couple being captured and tortured. Azad is rescued by the real Vikram Rathore, who turns out to be his doppelgänger. Narmada confronts Azad's accomplices in the prison by disguising herself as an inmate, where she learns about Azad and Vikram's connection.

Past: Captain Vikram Rathore, a commando in the Special Ops unit of the Indian Army, was sent in 1993 on an operation in which his team faced casualties caused by malfunctioning weaponry. Vikram and his team filed a complaint against Kalee, who was the supplier of the weapons. On the same night, Kalee attacked Vikram and his wife, Aishwarya, separated them, and shot Vikram off a plane. Aishwarya is sentenced to death for killing three cops on Kalee's payroll, who were threatening her. Vikram is declared a national traitor. Aishwarya's execution was postponed for five years when it was discovered that she was pregnant, with Azad, on the gallows. When Azad turns five, in her final words to him, Aishwarya asks him to prove Vikram's innocence and provide justice to the oppressed. Unknown to the world, Vikram survived Kalee's attack and has been living with the North Eastern tribe, but lost his memory.

Present: Back in 2023, the police officer from the train hijacking is revealed to be Juju, the boy who promised Vikram that he would find out who he is and reunites Azad and Vikram. Narmada's subordinate Irani is revealed to be on Kalee's payroll and tries to kill Azad's accomplices; Lakshmi is killed in the crossfire. Azad arrives at the prison, kills Irani and steals Kalee's trucks with his team, Vikram, and Vikram's friends. The trucks contain money that will be used to boost Kalee's political ambitions in the upcoming elections, but during the heist, Vikram and his friends are captured by Kalee's henchmen. Azad releases a video to the public and states that he has also stolen voting machines and demanded the sealing of 53 factories in the country responsible for air and water pollution. The factories are sealed by the government. Kalee arrives at the prison after finding out that Vikram and Azad are two different people and that he never killed Vikram. A fight ensues, and Vikram finally recovers his memory after hearing a gun malfunction. He and Azad fight together to defeat Kalee and his men. Finally, they hang Kalee to death like Aishwarya was once hanged, thus avenging the injustice caused to Vikram and Aishwarya.

During the post-credits scene, STF officer Madhavan Naik, who helped Azad in the completion of his missions, assigns him a new mission targeting Swiss banks.

Cast

Production

Development

In October 2019, it was reported that Shah Rukh Khan would collaborate with Tamil film director Atlee for his film after Zero (2018). Harish Shankar, who was present at the promotion event for Bigil, confirmed the collaboration between Atlee and Khan. During COVID-19 lockdown in India, Atlee narrated the story to Khan in 2020, through Zoom call. In May 2021, it was reported that the filming would commence soon. The film is produced by Gauri Khan under Red Chillies Entertainment, while Gaurav Verma serves as a co-producer. In September 2021, the film's title was speculated to be Lion due to a permission letter from the film studio. The company made a public announcement on 3 June 2022, confirming the project. The film was made on a budget of ₹300 crores.

Atlee co-wrote the film's script along with S. Ramana Girivasan, in his fourth consecutive collaboration with the director. Sumit Arora contributed the dialogues. Atlee further retained most of his norm technicians including cinematographer G. K. Vishnu, editor Ruben, art director T. Muthuraj and stunt director Anal Arasu. Spiro Razatos, Craig Macrae, Yannick Ben, Kecha Khamphakdee and Sunil Rodrigues were also hired as stunt directors. Dance choreographers of the film include Farah Khan, Vaibhavi Merchant, Shobi and Lalitha.

Casting

Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director. Khan was reported to play a dual role, as father and son, and would be seen in six different looks. Nayanthara was finalised as the female lead opposite Khan, thus marking her Hindi cinema debut. Initially Samantha was offered to be the female lead but declined the role. Priyamani, Sunil Grover, Sanya Malhotra and Yogi Babu later joined the cast. Reuniting with Khan after a decade, Babu last acted opposite Khan in Chennai Express (2013); however, he was only present in the Tamil version, while in the Hindi version, his role was played by Chhabra himself. Rana Daggubati was offered the antagonist role but declined citing health issues and thus the role went to Vijay Sethupathi. Deepika Padukone joined the cast in August 2022 in Chennai to shoot her special appearance. In September 2022, Vijay was reported to be making a cameo in the film, but later Atlee denied the news clarifying that he himself was making a cameo. In March 2023, Sanjay Dutt joined the cast to shoot for a cameo during an action scene. Allu Arjun was approached to play a cameo but declined the role citing his commitments to Pushpa 2 (2024).