Tony Jaa Makes His Hindi-Film Debut in Lakadbaggha 2
Thai action star Tony Jaa is making his debut in a Hindi-language film, Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business, according to Deadline. Hindi is the main language of Bollywood, the film industry based in Mumbai, and Jaa's role marks his first film in that language.
Deadline spoke with the film's actor-director, Anshuman Jha, and his co-star, Sarah-Jane Dias, in Bruges, Belgium, for its Local to Global series. The pair talked about the upcoming action film, which has its roots in a franchise Jha began with the first Lakadbaggha.
The new film is the second instalment. Jha plays Arjun Bakshi, whose fiancée, played by Dias, disappears while on a mission in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The story centres on an underground fight tournament that hides the auction of the last surviving Yaki monkey.
The first film followed Arjun, a vegan, as he travelled to Kolkata. There he became a vigilante, a person who takes the law into their own hands, after uncovering an illegal underground animal trade. The sequel keeps that animal-trade thread and adds a new setting.
Dan Chupong plays the antagonist, the character who opposes the hero. Kecha Khamphakdee designed the combat scenes, the planned choreography of the fights. Deadline notes that he also worked on the fight scenes in Ong-Bak, the Thai film that first drew wide attention to Jaa.
Before reaching cinemas, the film had its world premiere at the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival in Belgium. Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern region of the country. At the festival, Lakadbaggha 2 was runner-up for the Audience Choice Award, which goes to the film that audiences vote for most. Finishing second means it came just behind the winner.
The film is produced by First Ray Films and Matta Cinema. For a franchise that has moved from Kolkata to Indonesia, and from one country's film industry to another, the cast list alone shows how far the story has travelled. Jaa's arrival in Hindi cinema is the detail most likely to draw attention from fans of action films.
