Mardaani 2

Mardaani 2 is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film and a sequel to the 2014 film "Mardaani". It is directed by Gopi Puthran who wrote the previous film, marking his directorial debut, and backed by Aditya Chopra through Yash Raj Films, with Rani Mukerji reprising her role of police officer Shivani Shivaji Roy from the previous film. The plot follows her attempts to catch a 21-year-old rapist and murderer, played by newcomer Vishal Jethwa.
"Mardaani 2" was announced on 10 December 2018 by a social media post. Filming began in March 2019 and was extensively done in Rajasthan. The first look was unveiled in April 2019 and release date was announced in September 2019. It was released on 13 December 2019 to generally positive response. The film performed successfully at the box office and earned a worldwide gross of .
Following the success of "Mardaani 2", the production house announced in December 2019, a possible third installment in the "Mardaani" series, titled "Mardaani 3", with Rani Mukherjee reprising the role of Shivani Shivaji Roy.
Plot.
The opening credits show Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji) clearing the UPSC exams in 2015 to become a Superintendent of Police.
As the film opens in Kota, Rajasthan, a 21-year-old psychopath, Sunny (Vishal Jethwa), kidnaps an outspoken young woman, Latika by lying to her that her boyfriend, with whom she just argued has met with an accident. He takes her to an isolated fort and brutally tortures and rapes her, then kills her. Shivani, who has been appointed as the new SP of Kota city in Rajasthan arrives at the crime scene and immediately clashes with her subordinate DSP Brij Shekhawat (Sumit Nijhawan) who is highly misogynistic in nature and detests the success of women. As Shivani examines the case, the brutality of the murder disturbs her and makes her more determined to catch the killer.
Sunny, who has actually come to Kota from Meerut on a killing contract given by politician Govind Mishra a.k.a Panditji (Prasanna Ketkar) sees Shivani on TV when she appears at a press conference and promises to find Latika's killer. He taunts her by sneaking into her home and stealing her sari, using it to kill a journalist Kamal Parihar (Anurag Sharma); he also hires Pravin, a tea-seller near the local police station, to kill the journalist's wife Aabha Parihar in a suicide blast, then takes Pravin's place as tea-seller to keep an eye on her, introducing himself as a mute boy named Bajrang.
When Shivani brings in Lahanya, a child from the slums who had witnessed the blast, Sunny kills him in the toilet. Following the media uproar on the presumed failure of the police department to catch the murderer, Shivani is set to be transferred from Kota. Since the new officer will come after 2 days, Shivani along with her teammates Bharti, Anup and Vinay, decides to catch Sunny within these 2 days. Anup suggests Shivani to make peace with Shekhawat since his network of spies and informers is very strong in the city. Subsequently, Shivani agrees and requests Brij Shekhawat for help. Shekhawat leads them to his contact, a diamond merchant-cum-smuggler in Kota who reveals that the real mastermind behind the killing of Kamal Parihar is the youth politician Viplav Beniwal. He also provides Shivani with the whereabouts of Beniwal's right hand man Kunwar. Kunwar is arrested and brutally tortured into revealing the whereabouts of Sunny. Meanwhile, Sunny kidnaps a second bold outspoken woman (who once slapped him because he was secretly recording her). The police track down Sunny at his hideout in an under construction building and discover her already raped and tortured but still alive and manage to save her.
Sunny, acting as Bajrang, deliberately wounds himself and gets a lift from Shivani. Before he can strangle her, Shivani stops him, having realized that Bajrang is Sunny. The two fight but Sunny escapes. Meanwhile, the police find out a video of Sunny escaping from a mob taken by a passenger in bus and Shivani immediately has it made viral on all social media platforms. Panditji refuses to provide any protection to Sunny. As a result, Sunny kidnaps Pandit's granddaughter and threatens him of killing her in a bomb blast unless Shivani doesn't apologize to him in front of the media. Shivani and the Kota Police track down the missing girl at a warehouse, strapped with a bomb and manage to save her in the nick of time. This incident further fuels the media agitation against Shivani, which is lead by journalist Amit Sharma (Rajesh Sharma). Shivani agrees for an interview with Amit Sharma and speaks out against the challenges that women have to face on the work front everyday. Subsequently, Shekhawat mends his ways and agrees to co-operate with Shivani. Shivani discovers that Sunny's next target is the female politician Sunanda; having failed to kill Shivani, Sunny had warned her that he would instead kill someone like her. That night, amidst the Diwali celebrations, Shivani and her team search for him. Shivani discovers him in the house of a local couple, having taken their daughter and Sunanda hostage and torturing them. Shivani goes to confront him but is knocked unconscious and tied up.
When she awakes, Sunny is strangling Sunanda; to distract him, Shivani talks about his mother and his past, which she learned about from Sunny's father, who is imprisoned in Meerut. As a child, Sunny's father had tried to murder Sunny's mother, who had been an outspoken woman. In terror, Sunny's mother had hid on the terrace, but Sunny told his father where she was hiding; his father then killed his mother. The guilt of his mother's death has since caused Sunny to become unhinged and take that anger out on other confident girls.
Shivani signals Sunanda and the other hostage to toss the nearby buckets of paint on Sunny, as he is asthmatic. She then gains the upper hand, beating Sunny with his own belt. She kicks him outside and continues beating him as the neighbourhood gathers to watch.
Production.
On 10 December 2018 Yash Raj Films announced on their official Twitter account the making of sequel to their hit film "Mardaani" to be directed and scripted by Gopi Puthran. Rani Mukerji is to reprise her role of Shivani Shivaji Roy of the last film. Vikram Singh Chauhan and Shruti Bapna later on added to the cast.
Filming.
The principal photography began on 27 March 2019. The official Twitter page of Yash Raj Films posted the announcement of beginning of shooting and shared a picture from the sets of the film. Rani Mukerji is set to go on the second schedule of filming in the first week of May to hunt for culprit in Kota and Jaipur in Rajasthan.
Mukerji shooting in Rajasthan was battling in 42 °C temperature as she is filming fighting scenes while hunting for villain. Rajasthan schedule of the film was wrapped up on 29 May.
Release.
The film was released on 13 December 2019.
Box office.
"Mardaani 2" was released worldwide on 2105 screens. The film's opening day nett domestic collection was 3.80 crore. In the next two days, it earned nett 6.55 crore and 7.80 crore respectively. It grossed ₹67.12 in worldwide areas, consisting of ₹56.63 crore (Indian gross) and ₹10.49 crore (overseas gross).
Sequel.
In December 2019, it was announced that Rani Mukerji is set to reprise her role in the third installment of "Mardaani" franchise titled "Mardaani 3".