Tiger vs Pathaan to begin with a face-off between Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan?

Paathan

Zealous fans are not alone as they eagerly wait to see Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together in Tiger vs Pathaan. Producer Aditya Chopra is equally excited about taking the YRF spy universe forward with what is being touted as Yash Raj Films' most ambitious project to date. Chopra and director Siddharth Anand are planning to begin pre-production on the espionage thriller in October, and take it on floors between January and February 2024.

The next two months will be crucial for the director, who will call it a wrap on his home production Fighter by September. A source reveals, "Siddharth has only a song left to shoot. It will be filmed next month in an international location with leads Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone, followed by the unit canning some crucial VFX shots. After that, it will be a wrap on Fighter. Adi will use that time to zero in on the technical teams for his spy thriller. That way, Siddharth will have a robust team ready to assist him when he begins pre-production in October," reveals a source.

Expectations are bound to be sky-high when you have Shah Rukh and Salman joining forces. Knowing the film's high stakes, Chopra has been personally involved in writing it with Sridhar Raghavan. The source adds, "The story outline had been cracked a while ago. After the script is locked, the two superstars will be called for a joint narration." The producer-director duo want to shoot most of the combination scenes in the first schedule. "If things go as planned, the shoot will go on from February till May, with parts of it being shot at huge sets across studios in Mumbai. Siddharth apparently plans to kick off the shoot with a dramatic confrontation scene between Shah Rukh's Pathaan and Salman's Tiger, which will capture the film's essence. The two superstars have already given bulk dates for the first leg."

Tiger vs Pathaan will mark the reunion of the superstar friends, who have previously featured together in Karan Arjun (1995), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002). Their off-screen camaraderie reflected on screen as Salman made a cameo in Shah Rukh's Pathaan earlier this year, which became the film's biggest highlight.