Baaghi 2

Baaghi 2 () is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Ahmed Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under the banner of Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment. Based on the Telugu film "Kshanam", it stars Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani and it is a spiritual sequel to the 2016 film "Baaghi". It is the second installment in the "Baaghi film series". Prateik Babbar and Manoj Bajpayee were cast as the antagonists. It is followed by another spiritual sequel "Baaghi 3" which is again directed by Ahmed Khan and was released on 6 March 2020.
"Baaghi 2" follows the life of Ranveer "Ronnie" Pratap Singh, an Indian army officer who sets out to find and rescue his ex-girlfriend's three year old daughter from the clutches of her kidnappers in Goa. Principal photography commenced for the film in August 2017, and it was shot in Mumbai, Pune, Shanghai, Goa, China, Manali and Thailand. "Baaghi 2" was finished with a budget of , including print and promotion costs.
The film was released worldwide on 30 March 2018 including 3500 screens in India. It was praised for the action scenes performed by Shroff. "Baaghi 2" grossed over worldwide to become the third highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2018.
Plot.
Neha is a married woman who has a child named Rhea, whom she loves dearly. On Rhea's first day of school, Neha is attacked by masked men. Neha files a complaint to the police, saying that the men took Rhea away. The police conduct an investigation but find nothing. Helpless Neha asks her former boyfriend Ranveer "Ronnie" Pratap Singh, an Indian army Para SF soldier, for help.
Ronnie remembers his college life: he was Neha's collegemate. After some incidents, Neha too falls in love with Ronnie. Her father, Mahendra, who has cancer, asks Neha to marry Shekhar, a wealthy businessman, before dying. Neha, who wants to fulfill Mahendra's last wish, tearfully breaks up with Ronnie.
Back in the present, Ronnie meets a terrified Neha and agrees to help her. They go to the police station where the F.I.R. writer, Inspector Sharad Kute, misbehaves towards Neha. Ronnie beats up Kute and the other policemen in retaliation, an action that gets him arrested. Still, he is soon released on D.I.G. Ajay Shergill's request, revealed to be a batchmate of Ronnie's commanding officer, Colonel Ranjit Walia. He has summoned back to Col. Walia's army, but changes his mind midway while traveling with a local physically disabled agent, Usman Langda, whose help he has sought, and goes to Rhea's school. The principal denies any kidnapping incident around the school premises. Ronnie meets Shekhar's brother Sunny who is a drug addict. Ronnie follows Sunny to a building where he finds out that Usman is involved in drug peddling, fights two people, and defeats them. He asks Usman about Rhea, but the latter doesn't seem to know anything.
Meanwhile, a new police commissioner, Loha Singh "L.S.D." Dull, is assigned to the case. Ronnie publishes a picture of Rhea in a newspaper promising to give a reward to anyone who can find her. Shekhar calls Ronnie and tells Neha was diagnosed with Post-traumatic stress disorder and began to hallucinate about having a daughter named Rhea, while also adding that he doesn't have a daughter. Ronnie checks the CCTV footage and finds out no one else other than Neha in the car. Ronnie angrily yells at Neha, who asks him to leave. As he is just about to leave, he sees height measurements on the wall indicating that Rhea could be a real child and begins to doubt himself, but it is a split second too late as Neha jumps from the grill to commits suicide, feeling helpless because no one believed her.
Usman eventually admits to having "seen Rhea" when he visits Ronnie at a hotel - he had called Sunny for drug delivery when he spotted Sunny's men taking a blindfolded Rhea to a den. Sunny paid Usman to keep quiet or be killed. They go to a bar where Ronnie fights Sunny's henchman and chase Sunny, but L.S.D. Captures Ronnie, who he had asked to wait at the hotel. The police interrogate Sunny, but before Sunny shoots the officer, Ajay kills Sunny. Ronnie says that he has evidence that Rhea is alive, and the evidence is Usman. Ajay takes Ronnie to his house, telling Ronnie that he lost his family in an accident. Two men come to Usman's garage and brutally beat him. Ronnie comes to Usman's garage and sees a bleeding Usman and fights the two people. Usman dies due to his injuries. Ronnie takes the phone of one of the attackers, only to see a photo of himself taken in Ajay's house, and figures out that Ajay is the mastermind. He goes to Ajay's hideout, battles many goons in different parts of the jungle, and destroys helicopters while bleeding profusely. He kills a person who acted as Rhea's father but is shot by Ajay, who shoots and injures Ronnie. Ajay reveals that Shekhar hated Rhea and paid Ajay to kidnap Rhea. He burnt all of Rhea's photos and toys. Ajay also adds that he did all this for money. This makes Ronnie angry, and he beats up Ajay, takes a gun, and is about to shoot Ronnie, L.S.D. He shoots Ajay, thereby killing him. Ronnie sees a glimpse of Rhea before fainting. 
A few days later, Ronnie wakes up in the hospital. L.S.D. Explains that Shekhar was sterile, which moved him to take up this drastic step, implying that Rhea is not Shekhar's daughter but Ronnie's. Ronnie remembers when Neha told him that she has to marry Shekhar, Ronnie and Neha ended up making love. The film ends with Ronnie taking Rhea to his house and sees a vision of Neha smiling at him. Ronnie smiles back at her.
Production.
Development.
On 1 May 2017, Tiger Shroff posted the first look poster of the film on his Twitter account. The producer of the film, Sajid Nadiadwala, collaborated with Fox Star Studios and the film was released under Fox Star Studios and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment.
Initially, it was reported that Jacqueline Fernandez and Kriti Sanon were considered for the lead female role. However, in June 2017, Disha Patani was cast after going through a screen test with Shroff. Talking about the cast, Nadiadwala said, "They share an amazing onscreen chemistry, which was evident in their look test. Disha is just perfect for the role. I am happy with my cast and am excited to kick-start the project."
Shroff went to Hong Kong for training of martial arts under action director Tonny Ching while Patani received acrobatic training.
In July 2017, Nadiadwala cast Prateik Babbar to play the negative role.
The film was produced on a budget of ().
Filming.
Principal photography started on 8 August 2017. The shoot began with a song featuring the lead cast members on a set in Mumbai, followed by scenes shot on a campus in Pune. Then the team filmed in Manali, Thailand, China, Goa and Ladakh. A torture scene of Shroff's character was filmed while the actor was naked.
Marketing and release.
The first trailer of the film was launched on 21 February 2018 by Shroff and Patani. The film was released worldwide on 30 March 2018. It opened in 4,125 screens in 46 countries, including 3,500 screens in India.
Box office.
"Baaghi 2" earned net on its opening day, marking the biggest opening-day of 2018 (ahead of "Padmaavat"), the biggest Good Friday opening, the third biggest opening in the last 15 months (behind "Tiger Zinda Hai" and "Golmaal Again"), and the seventh biggest for an action film. After a robust opening day, it fell gradually by −20% on its second day earning an additional . In doing so, the film eclipsed the entire opening weekend – – of the first film in just two days. Box office pundits believed the fall could have been lesser had Friday not been a partial holiday, owing to Good Friday. After two weeks, the movie had grossed over in India.
Overseas, it made () after two weeks. The film grossed a total of () worldwide, including in India and overseas. The film was one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2018.
Critical reception.
"Baaghi 2" received generally negative reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Baaghi 2" has an approval rating of 40% on the basis of 5 reviews with an average rating of 4.3 out of 10.
Rajeev Masand gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that "It's hard to feel anything other than sheer frustration watching Baaghi 2, given how the filmmakers have squandered the potential of the central idea. This remake of the 2016 Telugu hit Kshanam is weighed down by a flawed script, and frankly by ‘misdirection’ on the part of director Ahmed Khan. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times criticized the film saying that, "It's a badly planned screenplay that doesn't know what it wants to be. From chasing Rambo's trail to taking the baton from Dum Maaro Dum, it tries every trick in the book and manages to make them worse" and gave it a rating of 1 out of 5.
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that "The trouble with a full-on masala film going in search of a plot is evident in the way the film unspools. The bare-bones are borrowed from Telugu thriller Kshanam, but the fillings are all strictly Bollywood". Rachit Gupta of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "Director Ahmed Khan's movie trades style for substance. The action sequences look slick, but they feel completely needless and a bit too excessive. It's disappointing that the story suffers in this attempt to impress with the action choreography and stunts."
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that "Baaghi 2 is more a two-and-a-half-hour stunt show than a genuine piece of cinema. Neither the heart nor the mind stands a chance of surviving this relentless onslaught of biceps, pecs, and clenched fists."
The movie was criticised for featuring a scene in which the protagonist Ronny (Tiger Shroff) ties a Kashmiri civilian to a jeep for burning the Indian flag and pelting stones; a direct reference to a controversial 2017 incident in which a group of Indian soldiers similarly used a human shield as a precautionary measure against violent crowds in Kashmir. In her review for the "Hindustan Times", Priyanka Sundar called the scene "one of the most distasteful and offensive portrayals of the Jammu and Kashmir unrest". In "Scroll", Nandini Ramnath criticised the "tone-deafness and staggering lack of sensitivity to the reality of the April human rights violation". Anupama Chopra of Film Companion gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "Baaghi 2 is a faithful remake of the 2016 Telugu thriller Kshanam. But since the leading man is Tiger Shroff, the protagonist changes from an investment banker to an army commando." Raja Sen of NDTV gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and said, "This is an action film without enough action and a romantic drama where you don't feel for the characters."
Soundtrack.
The music of the film was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Mithoon, Arko, Sandeep Shirodkar, Gourov-Roshin, and Pranaay Rijia. Lyrics were written by Kumaar, Ginny Diwan, Javed Akhtar, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, and Sayeed Quadri. The background score was composed by Julius Packiam. The songs featured in the film are sung by Atif Aslam, Jubin Nautiyal, Ankit Tiwari, Navraj Hans, Shreya Ghoshal, Palak Muchhal, Shruti Pathak, Parry G, Pranaay Rijia, Anand Bhaskar, Siddharth Basrur, Jatinder Singh and Big Dhillon.
The first song of the film, "Mundiyan", which is a recreated version of the Panjabi MC song "Mundian To Bach Ke", was sung by Navraj Hans and Palak Muchhal, and was released on 1 March 2018. The second single to be released was "O Saathi", sung by Atif Aslam, and released on 9 March 2018. The third song of the film, "Lo Safar", sung by Jubin Nautiyal, was released on 13 March 2018. The fourth song, "Ek Do Teen", an item song featuring Jacqueline Fernandez, from the 1988 film, "Tezaab", was recreated for this film. It was sung by Shreya Ghoshal with a rap by Parry G, and was released on 19 March 2018. Although in the film the track was voiced by Palak Muchhal as a scratch rehearsal version went by mistake to the film print. The music album was released on 20 March 2018 by T-Series.
Sequel.
On 19 February 2018, the third installment of the film was announced under the title of "Baaghi 3", with Sajid Nadiawala as producer, Ahmed Khan as director, Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor starring in the lead roles. The team started shooting in September 2019. It is scheduled to release worldwide on 6 March 2020.
Ritesh Deshmukh also joined the cast of the film.