From Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam, to Kashmir and then Hyderabad, Siddharth Anand has taken his next, Fighter, across the country. His latest stop — Mumbai. The director kicked off the fourth schedule of the Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor-starrer in a Chembur bungalow on March 19. We hear the leading man will film some emotional scenes with Talat Aziz, who plays his on-screen father, over the next two days, following which the unit will shift to Goregaon.

“I have already completed 25 per cent of the film,” begins Anand, who has earmarked a month-long schedule in April to can the action sequences. “We can release the film on January 25 next year. It has a lot of VFX, but that is going on simultaneously.”

The aerial action thriller traces Roshan’s character Patty as he strives to become the country’s best fighter pilot. Anand has a knack for mounting actioners on a big canvas as seen in his past three offerings, Bang Bang (2014), War (2019) and Pathaan. He promises his next, which marks his maiden production, won’t be an exception.

“[I want the] audience to see something bigger and better when they come to watch a Siddharth Anand film. All my action sequences must have an X-factor to them,” asserts the director.

He believes that in Roshan, he has got the best man to pull off the stunts. The director is elated to reunite with his favourite actor after Bang Bang and War. “Hrithik is a complete Hindi film hero. He is an intricate performer who not only adds nuances to his role, but also encourages the actors in front of him, so that everyone shines in the film. Hrithik doesn’t look at himself alone in a movie. He is a closet filmmaker, and he doesn’t know it. I keep telling him that he should direct a film soon.”

After Pathaan, the director is aware that his next will arrive with high expectations. However, he is happy that the runaway success of the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ended Bollywood’s dry spell and south movies’ domination at the box office.

“[Before the movie’s release], some sections of the Hindi film industry and public started believing in the Boycott Bollywood trend. They lost confidence in their own films. But Pathaan was an answer to it all — don’t find excuses, make a film with the right intentions, and people will come [to the theatres].”