NEW DELHI: A gripping Bollywood spy thriller set in Pakistan has become the highest-grossing Hindi film in India in just eight weeks and counting. Yet, making a Pakistan-bashing action film does not always guarantee commercial success. For instance, the 2025 Bollywood action drama War 2, with a Pakistan-linked terror network as the antagonist, failed to recoup its production costs estimated at around four billion rupees. Several BJP-led state governments have even offered support through tax incentives that lower cinema ticket prices for Bollywood films whose plot lines the party finds appealing, in recent years. Meanwhile, amid all this Bollywood chest-thumping war cinema, there are few films that spotlight the human cost of conflict.

Source: The Star February 02, 2026 06:05 UTC