3 Years Of Tiger Zinda Hai: Ali Abbas Zafar Recalls Salman Khan's Reaction When He Heard The Film's Title

Ali Abbas Zafar On Teaming Up With Salman Khan

The director said, "It was a huge responsibility especially because the first part, Ek Tha Tiger, was a huge hit. Secondly, it was coming after Sultan and the kind of love Sultan got, it became an added responsibility for me and Adi to kind of put up a film in front of an audience which is on a level where you know when people walk out of it, they feel that we did justice to the characters created in the first part, as well as took it to the next level."

Ali Abbas Zafar Wanted Tiger Zinda Hai To Be More Real And Grounded Than The First Film

Ali explained, "The first film was mostly romance. But now that the characters were set, I just thought that the second part should be little more real and grounded. The socio-political scenario of the world, global problems with terrorism, and that's what became the backdrop of the film. We were inspired by a true incident where 39 Indian nurses were captured by a terror group and we kind of gave it a fictional twist and that mission was created and conducted by RAW and Tiger."

Ali Abbas Zafar Recalls Salman Khan's Reaction When The Film Was Narrated To Him

"My discussion with Salman Sir when the script got ready, started with the title and the title was Tiger Zinda Hai. So, he smiled at me when we told him the title because his films have such iconic titles and somewhere or the other, Tiger Zinda Hai pictures him in the best possible way one can think of Salman Khan. So, when I narrated to him the idea of the story, he kind of understood what we were trying to do with the film. Because the bone of Tiger Zinda Hai is about unity, peace, brotherhood, happiness and somewhere or the other Salman Khan as a brand stands for that," Ali said.

Ali Abbas Zafar On Katrina Kaif's Character Zoya

The director said, "Katrina Kaif (Zoya) is a very important part of Tiger franchise. Somewhere or the other Kabir (Khan) had established a very strong hero, female hero in the first part of Tiger. So for me, it was an additional responsibility to create Zoya's character, which is as strong as Tiger in Tiger Zinda Hai. The idea was to give her own individuality. The track of Zoya in Tiger Zinda Hai is not only strong in the screenplay and storytelling but also comes across emotionally very strong."

He further added, "I've always been around very strong women - my mother, the women in my family, my friends and so has Salman you know and so has Adi. So, the idea was that it was high time you know that a man cannot always save women in the time of distress. Women are equally powerful and can stand on their own and fight, irrespective of where they are and who they are fighting. The whole idea of creating Zoya was that she became the voice for the contemporary woman of our times. And how women have been in this field, where they don't need anyone to fight for them. I think it's high time we start celebrating women on the big screen."

Ali Abbas Zafar On Why Tiger Zinda Hai Clicked With The Audience

"I'm very thankful to God and the audience for making Tiger Zinda Hai one of the biggest blockbusters. I think the love for the film mostly came from the emotion of the film. It is patriotic but it is not jingoistic, it is commercial, it is entertaining, but somewhere or the other it does not waver from the emotion," the filmmaker signed off.