Krrish

 

Krrish (Hindi pronunciation) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language superhero film directed, produced, and written by Rakesh Roshan. It stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles while Naseeruddin Shah, Rekha, Manini Mishra, Archana Puran Singh and Sharat Saxena feature in supporting roles. It is the second installment in the Krrish franchise, being the sequel to Koi... Mil Gaya, and relates the story of Krishna, the son of the previous film's protagonists, who inherits his father's superhuman abilities. After falling in love with Priya, he follows her to Singapore, where he takes on the persona of "Krrish" to keep his identity secret while saving children from a burning circus. From that moment on he is regarded as a superhero, and must later thwart the plans of the evil Dr. Arya, who has a connection to Krishna's father, Rohit, the protagonist of the previous film.

Krrish was conceived to be a film of global significance and a trendsetter in Indian cinema, with visual effects on par with those from Hollywood. To that end, the effects team was aided by Hollywood's Marc Kolbe and Craig Mumma, and the stunts were choreographed by Chinese martial arts film expert Tony Ching. The music was composed by Rajesh Roshan, with the background score by Salim-Sulaiman. Filming was done to a large extent in Singapore as well as India.

The film was released worldwide on 23 June 2006 at a budget of ₹40 crore and on 1000 prints, both near-record amounts for an Indian film at the time. Krrish received mixed reviews from critics in India, but got a record opening week at the box office. A blockbuster, Krrish grossed a worldwide total of ₹126 crore, becoming the third highest-grossing Indian film of 2006.

Krrish received 8 nominations at the 52nd Filmfare Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor for Roshan and Best Supporting Actress for Rekha, and won 3, including Best Special Effects. At the 2007 IIFA Awards, the film received 9 nominations and won 3, including Best Actor for Roshan. It also won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects. The third film in the series, Krrish 3 was released in 2013.

 

Krrish 2

Plot

The plot of the film connects with the predecessor. For more information on the predecessor's plot, see Koi... Mil Gaya.

Five-year-old Krishna Mehra is the son of the late scientist, Dr. Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) and his late wife Nisha (Preity Zinta). He lives in the town of Kasauli. He undergoes an intelligence quotient (IQ) test by his catholic school principal (Akash Khurana), who suspects that Krishna has superpowers, due to Krishna answering all the questions flawlessly. His grandmother, Sonia (Rekha), takes the young Krishna to a remote mountain village to conceal his unique abilities. Years later, Krishna (Hrithik Roshan) meets vacationing friends, Priya Kalyanan (Priyanka Chopra) and Honey Arora (Manini Mishra), who both live in Singapore. Krishna's friend Bahadur (Hemant Pandey) takes the girls' camping crew, led by Komal Singh (Puneet Issar), near his home to camp. Krishna saves Priya from a hang glider accident and falls in love with her when spending time with her.

After returning home to Singapore, Priya and Honey are fired by their boss, Nayantara (Archana Puran Singh), for taking a non-permitted extension of 5-days in their vacation. To keep their jobs, Honey suggests her boss making a television program about Krishna. Aware of Krishna's love towards her, Priya calls him to join her in Singapore to ask about her mother's (Kiran Juneja) permission to marry her. Sonia objects to this, saying that people will want to exploit his abilities. She then explains the events of the previous film. She also tells him that Rohit was called to Singapore and was hired by a scientist, Dr. Siddhant Arya (Naseeruddin Shah), to design a computer that could see the future to prevent wars and help prepare against natural disasters. Rohit later discovered that the purpose of the computer was not for good, so he destroyed it and was later killed by Siddhant. Krishna's mother, Nisha, also died of trauma, just after giving birth to Krishna. Krishna promises Sonia that he will never reveal his powers, so she permits him to go. In Singapore, during the program's production, Krishna keeps his word and reveals nothing exceptional about himself; Honey and Priya are fired again.

Krishna meets circus performer Kristian Li (Bin Xia), who attempts to raise funds to pay for his young sister's (Yu Xuan) leg surgery. He invites Krishna and Priya to his circus, where a fire breaks out during the performance. Several children remain trapped in the blaze. To save the children without revealing his abilities, Krishna wears a broken black mask lying over there and wears his jacket inside-out, creating the person "Krrish". Later, when Kristian sees Krrish fighting some goons and removing his mask, he discovers that his friend Krishna is Krrish. As Krrish is being offered a reward for his deeds, Krishna asks Kristian to assume the identity, so that he can pay for his sister's surgery.

Meanwhile, Priya and Honey also discover that Krishna is the real Krrish upon seeing Priya's footage from her video camera on TV. They decide to release the footage on TV to make Krishna a star. Krishna arrives and overhears them talking about how Priya had lied to him, and how they will reveal his identity. Just before Priya confesses to Honey that she has genuinely fallen in love with Krishna, he leaves, dejected.

After being confronted by Krishna at his apartment they talked what she said, Priya realises her mistake and stops her boss from revealing Krrish's identity. She then meets Dr. Vikram Sinha, (Sharat Saxena) who has been searching for Krishna for years. He tells them that Rohit is still alive; after completing the computer, he and Rohit tested it by starting it with Rohit's retina and heartbeat scan. They saw Siddhant holding Rohit at gunpoint. Rohit understood that Siddhant was going to kill him and then use the computer for his own selfish needs. He destroyed it and later, was being taken as a prisoner by Siddhant until he starts a new future computer.

In the present, Siddhant has rebuilt the computer after 20 years. He starts it to see his future and sees Krrish holding him at gunpoint. Siddhant then kills Kristian, thinking that he is Krrish. Krishna later follows Siddhant to his remote hidden island lair. When Siddhant looks into the future again, he sees the same thing and is shocked to see Krrish still alive and on his island.

When Krishna enters the compound, there is a vicious fight with Siddhant's thugs. Krishna eventually kills them with his superpowers, but Siddhant kills Vikram and holds Rohit and Priya at gunpoint. Eventually, Krishna saves Priya and Rohit, and wounds Siddhant fatally. Before Siddhant dies, Krishna reveals himself as the real Krrish to him and Rohit by removing his mask. After Siddhant dies, Krishna and Priya, then save Rohit and take him back to India, reuniting him with Sonia. Rohit then uses his late father's special computer to contact his alien friend Jadoo, whose spaceship is later seen coming from a distance. Rohit, Krishna, Priya and Sonia thank Jadoo and Krishna and Priya get married.

 

Cast

·         Hrithik Roshan as Krishna "Krrish" Mehra / Dr. Rohit Mehra, Krishna's Father (Double Role)

·         Priyanka Chopra as Priya Kalyanan

·         Naseeruddin Shah as Dr. Siddhant Arya

·         Rekha as Sonia Mehra, Krishna's Grandmother and Rohit's Mother

·         Manini Mishra as Honey Arora

·         Sharat Saxena as Dr. Vikram Sinha

·         Archana Puran Singh as Nayantara, Priya and Honey's Boss

·         Bin Xia as Kristian Li / Krrish

·         Hemant Pandey as Bahadur

·         Puneet Issar as Komal Singh

·         Akash Khurana as Father, Krishna's Catholic School Principal

·         Kiran Juneja as Amisha Kalyanan, Priya's Mother

·         Yu Xuan as Kristian's Sister

·         Preity Zinta as Nisha Mehra, Krishna's Mother (Special Appearance)

·         Rakesh Roshan as Dr. Sanjay Mehra, Krishna's Grandfather and Rohit's Father (Special Appearance)

 

Production

Development

In November 2004, the Roshans confirmed he would produce a sequel to Koi... Mil Gaya (2003). They announced that actors Hrithik Roshan and Rekha would return for the sequel, but that Preity Zinta would be replaced by Priyanka Chopra. Chopra also confirmed the same, adding, "The story will start where Koi... Mil Gaya ended." Rakesh Roshan hoped that the film would be remembered as the first to prove that the Indian film industry is equal to Hollywood. He decided to push the story forward by focusing on the son of the previous films's protagonist, who would inherit his father's special abilities. The story combined elements of Indian mythology (the main character's name Krishna alludes to the Hindu Lord Krishna), Chinese martial arts and Hollywood films to set itself up as a film of global significance.

Rakesh Roshan wanted Krrish to be a trendsetter in Indian cinema, with visual effects on par with Hollywood films. He hired Hollywood special effects experts Marc Kolbe and Craig Mumma, who had both previously worked on such films as Independence Day, Godzilla and Sky Captain, to help create the visual effects for the film. Roshan also hired Hong Kong action director Tony Ching after admiring his work in Hero. Before production began, Hrithik Roshan went to China to train with Ching for the cable work that would be needed to make his character "fly". A story board of the film was prepared and sent to Ching to help him develop the action sequences.

Additional production credits include: Farah Khan – choreographer, Samir Chanda and Sham Kaushal – art directors, Baylon Fonesca and Nakul Kamte – sound, Nahush Pise – makeup artist, Sham Kaushal – assistant action director.

Filming

Krrish was the first Indian film to be shot in Singapore under the Singapore Tourism Board's Film-in-Singapore subsidy scheme, and over 60% of the film was shot there. Shooting was accomplished on location over a span of 2 months, from September to November 2005 Locations featured included the Singapore Zoo, the Gateway building, and the Singapore National Library. Another major filming location was Robinson Road, where heavy rains caused production delays. The Singapore police were on location to block roads and protect the filming equipment, such as when the film's action scenes required two 250-foot high industrial cranes. Author Audrey Yue noted that the film shoot benefited Singapore by leading to domestic and Indian film-induced tourism.

Filming also took place in Manali and Film City in Mumbai. During filming of a flying stunt, one of the wires that was tied to Hrithik Roshan broke, causing him to fall 50 feet, though he landed safely on a shop's canopy. Hrithik described the incident as a "freak accident", stating, "I was skydiving to my death till I fell on a six-feet-long canopy of a shop that was out because of the slight drizzle. The canopy had iron rods. But I missed those rods too. What do I say? I guess the right word to describe the situation would be jadoo (magic)." Roshan also suffered other injuries during the film's production. He tore the hamstring in his right leg during a circus scene, singed his hair while running through fire in another action scene, and broke his thumb and toe during strenuous training for the wirework.

Indian firm Prasad EFX assigned a team of more than 100 VFX specialists to work with Marc Kolbe and Craig Mumma to create the visual effects for the film. Included were sophisticated 3D modelling and computer animation, including whole body scans, 3D replicas of vehicles, fire sequences, complicated wire removals and compositing work. They prepared over 1,200 VFX shots, accounting for approximately 90 minutes of screen time. Describing the effects, Rakesh Roshan stated, "If you liked the visual effects in Koi... Mil Gaya, you will find them far better in Krrish. I do not think audiences have seen anything like this in Hindi films."