With the strains of Anu Malik’s Sandesen aate hain as re-created by Mithoon wafting in the background, the success celebration presscon for Border 2 took off at the Taj Land’s End Hotel on February 12. 

The entire lead cast (except for Diljit Dosanjh) of Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Ahan Shetty, Mona Singh, Anya Singh, Sonam Bajwa and newbie Medha Rana, producers Nidhi Dutta and Bhushan Kumar and director Anurag Singh were around along with co-producers Shiv Chanana and Binoy Gandhi.

Nidhi Dutta, daughter of filmmaker-writer J.P. Dutta, who has written, produced and directed the 1997 Border and has also co-produced this film, celebrated the occasion with a surprise gifting of the original film’s Silver Jubilee trophy to T-Series supremo Bhushan Kumar. This marks not the culmination but the beginning of an association between T-Series Films and the Dutta for future films in the Border pantheon. Earlier, T-Series had marketed the music of only one J.P. Dutta film—Hathyar in 1989.

Director Anurag Singh was elated when this writer reminded him of his 2007 thriller, Raqeeb, which did not do well but was a great thriller. After that, Singh had entered the Punjabi film scenario before returning to Hindi cinema with the hit Kesari in 2019. Asked if he would now stick to patriotic films after Kesari and Border 2, the director stated that he himself did not know what he would do next. 

Singh had earlier said that a big film like Border 2 needed not just financial but also creative and moral support and this is what his producers had given him.

Varun Dhawan was in his element throughout and took on the responsibility of getting the ladies to speak, except for Anya Singh, who he left to co-star Ahan Shetty. He also thanked the makers for their trust in him as he had done a different kind of cinema before this film. Each actor recounted how they had worked on the film and their emotions after being offered their roles and during the shoot. 

Varun spoke about his father’s health scare and how he had rushed to Mumbai from the location but had been told by his legendary father (director David Dhawan) to return the next day, as moneys were involved in a film’s production. Mona Singh’s father had served in the 1971 war and had lost a leg, while Anya Singh’s grandfather too had been a war veteran. Medha Rana’s father and grandfather also were from an Army background.

Mona Singh also stated that actors don’t choose films, but films choose actors. That is why Border 2 landed on her lap. “Soldiers don’t go to our borders alone. Their families also go with them in spirit!” she maintained. “My father too had lost a leg by stepping on a mine just as is shown in the film.”

Sonam Bajwa thanked God for the round of great luck she was having since she started out in Hindi films with Housefull 5, followed by Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat (Baaghi 4 was an exception) and now Border 2. Sunny Deol (Border, Gadar—Ek Prem Katha, Gadar 2) took his stardom lightly but not the armed forces. He also talked about his father Dharmendra’s films like Haqeeqat and Lalkar (1972) that highlighted war. Incidentally, the year began with his father’s lasrt film on war, Ikkis.

Many on stage narrated incidences of how people from small children to older folks and soldiers’ family members adored their work in such movies and the role these films played in inspiring youngsters to join the army. 

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