movie: Kesari

Kesari (transl. Saffron) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action-war film written and directed by Anurag Singh. It was jointly produced by Karan Johar, Aruna Bhatia, Hiroo Yash Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Sunir Khetarpal under the banners of Dharma Productions, Cape of Good Films, Azure Entertainment and Zee Studios. The film stars Akshay Kumar with Parineeti Chopra, Mir Sarwar, Vansh Bhardwaj, Jaspreet Singh, Vivek Saini and Vikram Kochhar in supporting roles. It follows the events leading to the Battle of Saragarhi, a battle between 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs of the British Indian Army and 1,000–1,500 Afridi and Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen in 1897.

Initially planned as a production collaboration between Salman Khan and Johar with Kumar starring in the lead role, Kesari was announced in October 2017, with Kumar and Johar reprising their responsibilities; Khan later quit the project. Chopra was cast as the wife of Kumar’s character. Principal photography for the film began in January 2018 and concluded in December. The soundtrack was composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Chirantan Bhatt, Jasbir Jassi, Gurmoh and Jasleen Royal with lyrics written by Kumaar, Manoj Muntashir, Kunwar Juneja and Bagchi. Produced on a budget of ₹80 crore (US$11 million), the film was distributed internationally by Zee Studios.

The film was released in India during the Holi festival, on 21 March 2019. It received positive reviews from critics; it had a good start at the box office, while the opening day morning collection was affected by Holi-related celebrations. The film grossed over ₹100 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. It grossed over ₹207.09 crore worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2019.