In the ever-expanding YRF Spy Universe, which kick-started with 2012 blockbuster Ek Tha Tiger, Bollywood star Katrina Kaif says she's ready to go it alone should she be called to action.
“Absolutely! That would be exciting,” she tells The National, when asked if she'd like her character Zoya to front her own franchise.
Named after spy films produced by Yash Raj Films, the universe has become a money spinner for the company. Starting with Ek Tha Tiger featuring Kaif and Salman Khan, who returned with the sequel Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), the franchise also includes blockbuster War (2019), starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff in the lead.
But its biggest success has been this year's Pathaan with Shah Rukh Khan, which broke records upon its release in January and reinvigorated a sluggish box office still battling the after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tiger 3, a sequel to Tiger Zinda Hai, will hope to continue Pathaan's success when released on Sunday, during the lucrative Diwali holidays. Reportedly made at a budget of 3 billion rupees, it is one of Yash Raj Films' most expensive to date.
“I can confidently say that people will be blown away with what the film has to offer,” says Kaif. “It has bigger, better, stunning action sequences and some great music. The characters Tiger and Zoya are daredevils and I feel audiences enjoy watching these two spies back in action, saving the day.”
In Ek Tha Tiger, Kaif played a Pakistani spy named Zoya who falls in love with an Indian agent code named Tiger, played by Salman Khan. Disillusioned with their respective agencies, the pair deflect to fight the baddies on their own terms. They return in Tiger 3, directed by Maneesh Sharma, but are framed as traitors and set out on a guns-blazing adventure to clear their names.
Kaif, one of the highest-paid actresses in Bollywood, says training for the physically demanding role in Tiger 3 was the toughest of her career so far.
“When you see the kind of action that Zoya has done, you will realise that such sequences may not have been attempted by a woman before,” she says. “My action prep was at least for about two months. We wanted Zoya to look agile, have more speed, and greater strength. I really had to go through the grind. We also had some of the best action teams in the world training and shooting these sequences
“Every Tiger film has taken Zoya’s character a notch above, and she has fought harder, and it has been bloodier. That’s the USP of the character, which I love.”
Kaif, who was recently named an Etihad Airways ambassador, says she's happy to reunite with Khan for the film. The pair briefly dated in 2003, the year she made her Bollywood debut.
“Salman at the core is the same person he has always been – loyal and he a has a great heart,” she says. “As an actor, our fans love our chemistry and it is always wonderful to work with him.”
Tiger 3 is out at the cinemas on Sunday
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
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Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Top 10 most polluted cities
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- Jaunpur, India
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
