Rajinikanth's Tiger Muthuvel Pandian is back with Nelson Dilipkumar in the director's chair, and the first real reaction to the trailer is as much debate as celebration.
The Jailer 2 trailer landed on Monday, October 5, and within hours the internet had split into two camps. One is calling it Kollywood's next monster hit before a single frame has played in theatres. The other is a lot less convinced.
What's not in dispute is who's in it. Rajinikanth returns as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, the retired jailer trying to stay out of trouble before, inevitably, trouble finds him anyway. Nelson Dilipkumar is back directing, Anirudh Ravichander is back on score duty, and the sequel to 2023's Jailer arrives worldwide on October 15.
The moment everyone's replaying, frame by frame, is a backlit silhouette doing a very recognisable walk. Fans are near-certain it's Hrithik Roshan, even though the trailer never shows his face outright. Roshan is doing a cameo in the film, and if it is him, this marks his first screen moment with Rajinikanth in roughly four decades, since 1986's Bhagwaan Dada, where a child-artist Hrithik appeared uncredited at first before later being acknowledged as his debut. That's forty years between the two, and the internet has noticed.
The cameo roster has become one of Jailer's signature moves, and the sequel leans into it harder. Mohanlal returns as Matthew, Shiva Rajkumar as Narasimha, Jackie Shroff as Kamdev, all reprising roles from the first film alongside Ramya Krishnan and Yogi Babu. New to the cast are S.J. Suryah, Vidya Balan, Mithun Chakraborty and Suraj Venjaramoodu, which gives Jailer 2 one of the more loaded ensembles a Tamil film has carried this year.
Still, reactions to the trailer itself have been genuinely mixed, which is unusual for a franchise this anticipated. Plenty are calling it proof the sequel is going to be the biggest Kollywood release in a while. But a chunk of social media has pushed back, with some viewers saying the promo underwhelmed them compared to expectations built up over three years.
The box office math explains why expectations are this high in the first place. The original Jailer grossed around Rs 610 crore worldwide, with an India net close to Rs 350 crore, making it the second highest-grossing Tamil film ever. Trade watchers are already pencilling in a Rs 600 crore-plus run for the sequel, and a strong opening weekend combined with good word of mouth could push that number well past the first film's total.
Whether it gets there depends on things a trailer can't settle. Reviews, audience word of mouth after the first Friday, and whether the Hrithik cameo lands the way the silhouette shot suggests it will. October 15 will answer most of that. Until then, the arguing continues.
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