Mumbai: Superstar Shah Rukh Khan released the first teaser of his highly anticipated film 'Pathaan', giving his fans the perfect return gift on his 57th birthday.
The actor, who plays the titular spy in the upcoming 'Yash Raj Films' (YRF) production, shared the 1.25-minute-long teaser on his official 'Twitter' account recently.
"Fasten your seatbelts. 'Pathaan' teaser is out now! Celebrate 'Pathaan' with 'YRF 50' only on a big screen near you on January 25, 2023. Releasing in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu," Shah Rukh captioned the teaser link on the microblogging site.
The video opened with an interrogation where the informant could be seen saying Pathaan has been missing for three years after his cover was blown in the last mission.
"I've heard he was tortured a lot," the informant said in the voiceover.
This dialogue is an apparent hint to Shah Rukh's self-imposed sabbatical from the movies after the box office failure of 2018's 'Zero'. However, this year he had cameos in films such as 'Rocketry: The Nambi Effect', 'Laal Singh Chaddha' and 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva'.
Shah Rukh is introduced as the battered, bloodied spy who proclaims he is alive when a man wonders if Pathaan is dead. It's a nice hat-tip to his industry friend and fellow Bollywood star Salman Khan, whose last film under YRF's 'Tiger' franchise was 'Tiger Zinda Hai' (2017).
Billed as a 'high-octane spy thriller', 'Pathaan' is directed by Siddharth Anand of 'War' and 'Bang Bang' fame. The film also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham.
The teaser also sees Deepika involved in stylish stunts and romancing Shah Rukh. John, who previously starred in YRF's biker action hit 'Dhoom', locks horns with the superstar on a moving trailer truck.
'Pathaan' marks the fourth collaboration between SRk and Deepika, following her Bollywood debut 'Om Shanti Om', 'Chennai Express' and 'Happy New Year'. John and Deepika are working once again with each other after 'Race 2'.