Sidharth Malhotra has forged a bond with action movies after Shershaah (2021). It’s not surprising then that he followed up the war drama with Mission Majnu (2023), Indian Police Force and now, Yodha. But the upcoming hijack thriller, backed by Karan Johar, is worlds apart from the actor-filmmaker’s last collaboration, Shershaah.

The leading man says, “Yodha is fictitious whereas Shershaah was based on a real-life war hero. Yodha’s plot hinges on a stressful situation—who do you save, yourself or your countrymen? It delves into the quick-thinking mind of soldiers, their discipline and selflessness. The men in uniform have a protective instinct, and that spirit is captured in the film.”

Debutant director duo Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha’s thriller—also starring Raashii Khanna and Disha Patani—showcases how a suspended officer of the special unit, Yodha Task Force, takes on a group of hijackers. Considering a chunk of Yodha is set inside an aircraft, Ojha says the action required months of meticulous planning.

“We storyboarded the idea to the finest detail. Then, a fight choreographer sat with us and added to it. When Sidharth entered the scene, he first did the action on a mock set,” he recalls.

Before arriving on the set, Malhotra underwent a six-month prep. Action choreographer Craig Macrae, who orchestrated the fight sequences in Pathaan (2023) and Jawan (2023), designed set-pieces that involved knife techniques and hand-to-hand combat, which could be pulled off in tight spaces. Considering this genre is his forte, the actor proved to be a quick learner. In addition, he committed himself to a rigorous fitness regimen and diet plan to adopt a lithe frame.

Ojha adds, “The shoot was executed with the action director after six months of prepping to the T. Safety is a must. If the process is followed correctly, the scene can be shot without any glitches. Sidharth put in way too many hours to get it right. The sequences look slick because he was fully familiar with it. The action pieces look great on screen.”

But a film can’t rely solely on action. The director duo was aware that the story’s emotional hook has to be equally strong. Co-director Ambre says they crafted Malhotra’s character Arun as a family man. “Arun is a true soldier. He has an ailing mother, a loving wife and is a family man, but still, the nation comes first for him. When his patriotism is questioned, something changes in him.”

Pushkar Ojha and Sagar Ambre

It took Tanuj Virwani more than a decade to realise his wish of being a Dharma actor, but he is pleased that when the inevitable happened, it was for a good role. The actor plays a pivotal role in Yodha, a hijack thriller led by Sidharth Malhotra. Virwani says the world created by director duo Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha was drastically different from his web shows.

“Since I’ve largely been doing web work, I got used to a certain style of working. There, [we’d] shoot six to seven pages of dialogue a day. On the set of Yodha, right from the rehearsals to blocking the scenes, nothing was rushed.”

Virwani believes the director duo have earned their stripes, having been assistant directors on Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan (2023) and several big projects. Their years of experience had sufficiently prepared them for their maiden directorial venture.

“Karan [Johar, producer] is not going to hand over the reins of a new potential franchise to a couple of newcomers, if he doesn’t believe in them. [They seemed like] seasoned players. When you rise through the ranks by assisting on prime projects, you learn so much on the job. They [didn’t] step on each other’s toes. At no point did I get contradictory feedback from either; they were always on the same page. Also, if one was directing me in a scene, the other would not be on set.”

With the thriller largely set inside an aircraft, the actor says most of his scenes involved shooting against a green screen. “You have to use your imagination in such cases. But the directors gave live audio commentary on set. I was reacting to whatever they were throwing at me.”