Thugs of Hindostan logo and release date out, Amitabh Bachchan trumps Aamir Khan for top-billing

Yash Raj Films has officially kicked off promotions for what is shaping up to be the studio’s most ambitious film ever, Thugs of Hindostan. On Monday, they officially released the logo for the film and announced the release date. Starring Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Katrina Kaif, Thugs of Hindostan has officially been slated for a November 8 release.

Starting this week, YRF will release motion pictures for characters, which will lead up to a teaser. With less than two months to go till its release, they’re cutting is closer than usual, considering not even a single image from the film has been released so far.

Touted as India’s answer to Pirates of the Caribbean, the animated logo has similar iconography, with swords and emblems merging into each other to reveal the steely title: Thugs of Hindostan.

Curiously, though, it is not Aamir who has received top billing but Amitabh. Aamir, who has delivered some of Hindi cinema’s biggest hits in Dangal, 3 Idiots and PK, said that he was starstruck working opposite Amitabh.

Thugs of Hindostan has been budgeted at approximately Rs 300 crore. “Thugs of Hindostan is a big action-adventure film. There’s no message in that. I am playing a character who cannot be trusted at all – [so it’s the] very opposite of Dangal … He’s a very slippery character. He has no scruples at all – for money he can sell his mother out. He’s like that,” Aamir earlier told South China Morning Post about the film.

Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, who also directed Aamir in Dhoom 3, the film has been shot aboard ships, too. Said an insider, “Since sea and ships play an integral part in the plot, Aamir as well as (producer) Aditya Chopra were sure that they would go all out to present the biggest spectacle that Hindi cinema has ever witnessed. The film’s budgets are yet to be ascertained, but the cost for the two ships easily runs into several crores.”

That’s how two mammoth ships — weighing two lakh kilos — were built by over 1,000 people, including international designers and ship makers. “It took over a year to build these two ships off the coast of Malta (in Europe). Director Vijay Krishna Acharya wanted to go the whole hog in terms of scale and create a huge visual experience. Authenticity and aesthetics have both been kept in mind given the fact that it’s a period film.”

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