Woot, teaser trailer and release date announcement! As I suspected, YRF was trying to avoid a Brahmastra and didn’t want to announce ANYTHING until they successfully managed to finish filming during pandemic, and were able to pick a safe theatrical release date. Better to wait and then announce one time, for sure and certain, then go to early and have to keep changing it.
First, the teaser itself. As we would expect from a YRF/SRK combo, it is patriotic without being jingoistic. Woot! Our hero has no religion, no name (meaning no caste, ethnicity, etc.), he is only Indian. Very old school Nehruvian view of National Identity. Also old school, Republic Day release. Not Independence Day, Republic Day, all Congress-y and stuff.
Okay, now here’s what I got distracted by! After the announcement, SRK’s twitter did an ASKSRK. And I truly can’t say why, but I am POSITIVE it is not SRK himself responding. Something is missing, something is wrong. Does anyone else feel like that? Those of you who also usually read ASKSRK twitter exchanges? Does this one feel different?
Compare with this:
Am I crazy or is there really something different?
And the other burning question, how many times will I forget the third “a” in “Pathaan”? I’m gonna say….150 times?
dontcallitbollywood 
I’m glad it finally got announced! I didn’t realize John Abraham was in this too. Overall the announcement looks cool but idk what else to say until we get more details.
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You can complain about the extra “a”. I am always down for that.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 9:09 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Lol, usually I don’t like it when they add extra letters but in this case the extra a makes it look kinda cool.
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I don’t even pretent to know as much about SRK as the rest of the DCIB community and even I can tell that these tweets are not written by him. The syntax is all wrong. It feels like forced banter. There isn’t the normal wit, tongue-and-cheek humor. Maybe he just needed a break from twitter (I wouldn’t blame him) and will be back eventually.
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I also noticed he wasn’t picking very interesting tweets to respond to. It was all easy stuff, and related to the film promotion. Nothing weird like “I had a dream about you last night”.
Anyway, glad to know I wasn’t imagining the difference!
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 9:58 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It’s all just very cynical and forced. So either he is still very angry and pissed off by everything (again, wouldn’t blame him) and being forced to do this as part of his contract. So he is just going through the motions and his anger is coming through. Or it’s not him.
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I was thinking that he just might not FEEL like being witty and charming right now.
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I hope if he doesn’t feel like it, he’s making someone else do it. Oh oh! Maybe it’s AbRam! Little bit of a family vacation project.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 12:52 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Pretty sure it’s just not him. Which, good for him! Go play on the beach with your babies or something and let someone else stare at the phone.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 10:04 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Does not sound like him at all. Even the grammar and syntax is different. Probably needed a break. I hope he comes back and lets us love him.
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Yes! Just totally off.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 12:34 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I did feel the AskSRK tweets were not as spicy, but I didn’t think he wasn’t running his twitter.
I’m sure they haven’t wrapped filming, as Deepika said recently. Adding the fact that this is going to be special-effects heavy, I understand the long time to release, but it’s still almost a year! Has he ever announced a film this early?
They say that the hero has no name or religion, but Pathaan itself is an ethnicity! I hope that’s deliberate and they explore that. Coming to why I’m a bit wary of this project, you know certain people are going to attack him about the whole nationalism-patriotism thing, this is exactly the stuff he’s been dealing with! I’m bracing myself for the promotions already, when normally I’d be looking forward to them. I hope I’m wrong! I’m also worried about how much of the action he’s able to do and how much will be taken care of by effects, and if it’s going to affect the film adversely. He’s no Hrithik or Tiger. Ok I’ll stop before being too much of a downer!
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I am sure the early release announcement is more of a YRF/Pandemic thing than anything. YRF has been very vocal about their commitment to theatrical releases. If theaters know they can look forward to a big release it will really help them. Plus, putting the release date that far out means they can rely on theaters being fully open and so on and so forth. I’m gonna guess with a patriotic release they considered Independence Day instead, but then pushed it back further to be safe.
Just in terms of promotion, I am really pleased with the “Pathaan” just Indian idea. Doesn’t the teaser end with you have to find out how I got that name or something like that? I’m legitimately curious to find out!!!! Was he in disguise? Did he have a PAthani friend who gave him the name?
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 1:44 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I was going to say the same thing–that “Pathaan” actually strikes me as a VERY ethnicized sort of name to pick, and I hope they do something with it. Pathani identity could be a cool thing to explore: split across multiple countries and religions, with a long history of positive depictions in Bollywood.
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Isn’t his dad’s family Pathan? I’d totally thought that was part of his doing this film ever since we learned the title.
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Yes he has talked about his Pathan lineage. I too think they’re going to explore that identity. Not sure how much I trust Sid Anand with it though.
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Hey, Sid Anand made Bang Bang! He can do anything.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 9:59 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m not worried about the action and fluff, I doubt about the heavy stuff like identity.
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I did too!!!! But now it’s all “he has no name”. So I am very curious. And yes, he has called himself “Pathan” or “Pathani” a lot, it’s definitely part of his identity as a person. So, yeah, hmmm.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2022 at 9:20 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I agree, its not him or it’s not him with any effort. Maybe he’s in the room as they tweet but he is not witting and funny and slightly off color. Look, Aryan’s case isn’t over. The papers keep saying “no evidence, no evidence” but until the courts declares him innocent this horrible disgusting thing that was done to him isn’t over. Shah Rukh is not going to be “back” until that happens and maybe not even then. He’s done everything right and and is a real patriot and the BJP does this to his family anyway. As to the film, I hope its not just an Ashkay super patriot nonsense. He’s never sunk that low and I hope this isn’t that.
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I hope the same, but Deepika’s line “All he had was his nation INDIA” made my eyes roll. John’s presence didn’t help also – I still feel shivers down my spine everytime I see him because of how awful Satyamev Jayate 2 was (and I only watched half of the trailer).
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Only way I’ll care about John is if he has a bromance with Shah.
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Sid Anand! Director of War!
On Thu, Mar 3, 2022 at 10:09 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Which is what gives me hope!
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Enh, a better sign than “Hindustan,” at least.
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I’m in a WhatsApp group with an SRK fan club in Mumbai and I asked one of the very thoughtful members if he thought Shah Rukh was doing his own Tweets and he thinks that SHah Rukh is. They read all the Hindi and English ones So, another view… –Molly
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My feeling is that the coming of this announcement has less to do with the filming schedule and more with the first public signs of justice for Aryan coming out from inquiries into the NCB malversations. Which is also why we now get an ‘askSRK’ (which I do believe was him although maybe a bit perfunctory) and an airport sighting. And I think he will not be fully ‘back’ until Aryan’s innocence has been publicly and officially proven and proclaimed. And that Adi is such a true friend that he respects Shahrukh’s wishes in this.
Also I’m excited by the apparent premise of the trailer: a man with no caste, no religion, no name but a 💯% patriot – is Pathaan trying to tell us something? Is this maybe also the reason for all the secrecy around the film. A big masala action movie with a secret message about a secular, tolerant India? I wouldn’t put it past the producer and the star.
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Initial thoughts:
1) I already know I’m seeing this opening weekend with my dad. He’s a huge SRK fan now and really liked War, so this is gonna be a winner.
2) I have a student this year with the last name Pathan. Female. One a. I will be thinking of her the entire time.
3) The music sounds like Hrithik’s entry song in War.
4) Am I in the minority that I can’t stand the long hair?
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Based on my unofficial survey of friends and relatives, you are NOT alone in disliking the long hair!
On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 5:03 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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