Sonu Nigam strode unnoticed down the aisle, face half hidden and slipped into a window seat where he fell asleep till it was time to land at Jaisalmer. Next to him sat Varun Dhawan, bright as a button, his bodyguard one row away. On the aisle seat was producer Bhushan Kumar, his bodyguard also on board. Given his father Gulshan Kumar’s tragic end, if there’s anyone who requires security, it is Bhushan. But despite a slate of big-time films, Bhushan’s work has not rattled anybody enough to want to gun for him. In fact, he straddles all worlds. He has under his umbrella left-of-centre filmmakers Anubhav Sinha and Aanand L. Rai, as well as Border 2, which would come under the “patriotic” genre. Back in 1997, J.P. Dutta was one of the first to come under fire for what is now whacked as hyper nationalism.
But the overriding sentiment that envelopes Border 2, to be released on Republic Day, is nostalgia. And 29 years later, “Sandese aate hain... ghar kab aaoge” continues to evoke the same emotions it did when Javed Akhtar had written the lyrics for Anu Malik’s enduring tune.
Three names from the original have spilled over into the new — Sunny Deol, Sonu Nigam and Roop Kumar Rathod — while two stepped aside for their offspring to move in. J.P. Dutta, whose daughter Nidhi partners with T-Series as producer, and Suniel Shetty, whose son Ahan dons a uniform in the new Border. Ahan, with his bodyguard, was on the same flight.
Sunny flew into Jaisalmer from his farmhouse in Manali. Sunny’s resurgence after a two-decade bleak run between Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) and Gadar 2 (2023) sees him demanding a peak ₹40 crore fee today with bodyguards on either side of him. With this adrenaline boost, Sunny’s personality has also shed its inherent shyness — he spontaneously shook a leg with BSF officers at an open-air event at Tanot to reintroduce “Ghar kab aaoge”. A visit to the BSF desert base is incomplete without a visit to Longewala, where a well-laid war memorial keeps alive the 1971 battle when the Indian Army foiled Pakistan’s plans of marching to Delhi. Interestingly, the Border event was held next to the Tanot Mata Temple, maintained by the BSF. Legend has it that the missiles showcased there are the ones that fell on the temple premises in 1971 but miraculously failed to explode, leaving the temple unharmed.
A fresh addition to the new Border, which brings together the Indian Army, navy and air force, is Diljit Dosanjh, who was missing in action during most of the promotions. California-based Diljit has a crammed diary. Unwittingly, his absence keeps Border 2 out of controversy, as he has a way of stepping into it every time he opens his mouth for anything other than singing. But Diljit brings his own strength to the franchise. Apart from Deol-Dosanjh making it a double-Jat-powered engine, the musician has a special equation with director Anurag Singh ever since they made the Punjabi hit Jatt & Juliet (2012). Anurag, who has stepped into J.P.’s place, is familiar with Sikhs and the battlefield — his Kesari (2019) has been one of Akshay Kumar’s rare successes in recent times.
This will be Diljit and Varun’s first film together. They would have worked in Boney Kapoor’s No Entry 2, which was to have taken off last year. Except that Diljit moved out of it, and director Anees Bazmee has moved on to a new comedy with Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. The doors to No Entry 2 look shut at the moment.
So, a turbaned Sunny will be the flavour of the month and though it may be critiqued heavily, the bugle cry will be, “Awaaz kahan tak jaani chahiye?” “Lahore tak, Lahore tak”.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author