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Every year on July 29th, people around the world come together to celebrate International Tiger Day. This special day is dedicated to raising awareness about tiger conservation. We wanted to participate, but decided to stick to our strengths. So, we’re celebrating by listing our favourite tigers from Indian cinema.
In Khoon Pasina, Bachchan plays Shiva, a.k.a. Tiger (ours is not to question why). One day, Tiger spots Chanda (Rekha) beating up a man who was harassing her and falls for her. He takes cue from the freshly battered harasser, and tries to woo Chanda by any means necessary. Chanda challenges him to open a tiger cage nearby, let the tiger out, and then put the tiger back in the cage. Note: when someone tells you that the only way they’ll go out with you is if you do something this ridiculous, take the hint. In sharp contrast, Tiger’s takeaway is to ruin his leopard-fur-lined leather jacket while wrestling an actual tiger, to impress Rekha. When he has successfully fought off both the tiger and his dust allergies, the camera turns to Rekha standing there looking mesmerised. “Main teri ho gayi, tu mera ho gaya (I’m yours, you’re mine)” plays in the background indicating Tiger has won Chanda over.
A ruthless dacoit, Vikram (Amjad Khan) with dreams of conquering the village, enlists the help of a tiger to scare the villagers into leaving. Bachchan plays a con man, who goes by Mr. Natwarlal, and has a personal vendetta against Vikram. He resolves to free the villagers from the clutches of said tiger, and Vikram by extension. Mr. Natwarlal, our brave and fearless hero, fights the tiger and this time around Rekha as Shanno lends a hand. As they successfully pacify the tiger, the other villagers come to help them with what looks like a fishing net. The bottom line: It works.
A cursed tiger, an age-old myth, a near-miss death – this is just the beginning of Mukesh Bhatt’s Junoon. Roy as Vikram makes the rookie mistake of throwing caution to the wind, and going on a hunting trip with his friend on a full-moon night. The full moon is legendary for its supernatural aura and you’d think Vikram would heed this, but no. This is how he pays for his insouciant disregard of folklore: He’s possessed by the spirit of the cursed tiger and becomes a — wait for it — weretiger. On the night of his wedding, Vikram transforms into a tiger and subsequently goes on a killing spree. The events that unfold need to be seen to be believed (along with the morphing CGI that is used on Vikram). They just don’t make movies like they used to, you know?
In the world of Bollywood, fighting tigers is a sure shot way of impressing the girl of your dreams. In Om Shanti Om (2007), Shah Rukh Khan (as Om Prakash Makhija) fights a stuffed, life-size, toy tiger as part of a fake action sequence he’s fake shooting to get Shantipriya’s (Deepika Padukone) attention. Rising star Omiswaami might not be real, but Om’s need for validation definitely is. Khan throws the punches, and the punchline – he improvised the “naughty pussy” bit. Here too, the tiger succeeds in bringing the lead pair closer. (We’re beginning to see a pattern.)
Arguably, Hindi cinema’s most legendary Tiger in recent times is Salman Khan as Avinash "Tiger" Singh Rathore, hero of Ek Tha Tiger (2012). Tiger is an Indian spy (and something of a legend in the spy-verse) who takes on an incredibly high stakes mission: To recover sensitive information before it falls into the wrong hands (i.e. Pakistani intelligence). Along the way, he falls in love with Katrina Kaif’s Zoya and gets slightly distracted from his mission, but can you blame him? All is well in the end which is what really matters. Tiger and Zoya are all set for their third outing this November.
If you thought using a tiger to terrorise villagers was a unique and revolutionary idea, wait until you hear about the time these villagers used a tiger (among other wild animals) to usher in an actual revolution. In the global blockbuster RRR (2022), Komaram Bheem (NTR Jr.) a rebel from the Gond tribe uses a truckload of wild animals to wreak havoc on his enemies (the colonisers) who have captured a young girl from his tribe. The crowd cheers as Bheem unleashes the entire animal kingdom on unsuspecting white dudes. The empire roars back and you’ve got to feel sorry for the guards who are faced with an entire zoo.
Another tiger on a killing spree, another hunting trip that starts off with a series of misfortunate events in Kaal (2005). Cars break down in the middle of the jungle, and a wildlife expert named Krish Thapar and his wife Riya are sent to a national park to investigate a series of mysterious deaths. They’re forced to band together with a group of friends Dev, Ishika, Sajid, and Vishal, who are on a hunting trip. The group encounters three tigers and is saved by Kaali Pratap Singh (Ajay Devgn), who guides them out of the jungle and tells them the story about a vengeful ghost that kills tourists. One by one, as people start to disappear, suspicion builds.
Spoiler: The one responsible for all this murderous mayhem is the spirit of our man Kaali, who was once beaten by the villagers and left to be mauled by a tiger. To his credit, Kaali is a conservationist ghost and hates tourists who disrupt wildlife.
Enough said.