‘War’ explodes at box office
Highest first-day take for any Bolly film
IN JUST three days since the release of the highly-awaited Bollywood release, War, the film grossed over a billion rupees (R212 860 000) at the Indian box office, entering the famous Rs 100-crore club.
The action-thriller, which features Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff as the leads, recorded the highest first-day collection for any Bollywood film.
On receiving such an overwhelming response from the audience, director Siddharth Anand said: “For all of us, what matters most is that our film is receiving universal love and appreciation.
“It’s one of the rarest of moments where kids, youth, families, and older ages are all loving a film and endorsing it. We’re deeply thankful and humbled. We’ve made War with a lot of passion, belief, and love and it’s fantastic to see audiences enjoying themselves to the fullest in the theatres.
“Our film is a big-screen experience and we hope we entertain people across the length and breadth of our country in the days to come!”
War was released last Wednesday, to tie in with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Roshan and Shroff pushed their bodies to the limit to pull off deathdefying stunts in the film, which was shot in seven countries and 15 cities.
The biggest action-entertainer of the year also starred Bollywood beauty Vaani Kapoor, who is cast opposite Roshan and plays the leading lady.
The film features a breath-taking and risky car chase sequence filmed in Rovaniemi, Finland.
“Producers contacted us during their search for Arctic filming locations. After researching different options, including an alternate location for the scene in Sweden, we were fortunate in helping them choose Finland,” said Anna Niemelä, film commissioner at House of Lapland.
One of the criteria in choosing the location was a skilled production company to handle the Finnish film production.
“For the location, we needed an unobstructed expanse of ice. We found that high up in the Arctic – and a fantastic production team from Finland
War. to handle the kind of scale we wanted.
“The Finnish crew, professional and organised, gave us one of the most brilliant working experiences we’ve had.
“Finland’s conditions were quite challenging during the winter, but our team was well-equipped and prepared. And what we found in Finland was a director’s dream, with unparalleled visuals,” said director Siddharth Anand. Paul Jennings, well known for his work on Game of Thrones and Batman Begins, among others, was the action director for the scene filmed in Rovaniemi.
In Finland, production duties were handled by the production company Grillifilms.
“Preparations for the shot took three months.
“The production chose to film in Finland after the producer and director visited the location we suggested.
“The filming itself lasted six days, and the entire production group was in Rovaniemi for almost two weeks.
“The production group had nearly 70 people from eight different countries,” said Hanna Tuovio, executive producer at Grillifilms.
“We filmed the scene on the river ice and forest roads.
“As far as the filming was concerned, the city of Rovaniemi’s infrastructure worked really well.” | Additional reporting, IANS.