Farhan Akhtar's 'Toofaan' streams on July-16, 'great date,' jokes Katrina

Written by

Priyanka Bansal

Twitter

Last updated on Jun 16, 2021, 07:37 pm

Farhan Akhtar took to social media today to announce the release date of his much-awaited and much-delayed sports flick Toofaan. The film hits Amazon Prime Video on July 16. Earlier, it was scheduled to start streaming on May 21, but considering the spike in COVID-19 cases, makers had indefinitely postponed the release. To note, Toofaan is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.

Akhtar dedicated release to 'fighting spirit of people'

Akhtar said, "With humility, love and in dedication to the fighting spirit of the beautiful people of our nation, our film Toofaan will be releasing on July 16th. #ToofaanOnPrime." Notably, July 16 is also Katrina Kaif's birthday. "Great date," she mused. Previously, while announcing the release delay, the production house had cited COVID-19 induced severity, and said, "Our focus is completely on the pandemic."

This is what the lead actor tweeted

It's based on the turmoil of a national-level boxer

The movie is said to be based on the story of a national level boxer, played by Akhtar. According to the makers, it will depict the tale of a misfit from Dongri in the backdrop of boxing, and depict how he fails and falls, but emerges triumphant, eventually. The film also stars Mrunal Thakur, Paresh Rawal, Supriya Pathak and Hussain Dalal in pivotal roles.

He had to face brutal trolling for his political stands

Right after the announcement, social media erupted with strong reactions, lambasting him for his anti-government stance, which he portrayed when he questioned the vaccines' prices and during the anti-CAA movement. Hence, Akhtar saying "..our nation" was hypocritical, they added. Further, many have already rated Toofaan 2.6 on Google, and threatened to make it IMDb's worst-rated.

Akhtar will collaborate with sister Zoya, Salman Khan for documentary

Apart from Toofaan, Akhtar would collaborate with his sister Zoya and Salman Khan to produce a documentary on their fathers, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan, respectively. The film, reportedly titled Angry Young Men, will be directed by Namrata Rao. It will be produced under banners of Excel Entertainment (Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani) and Tiger Baby (Zoya and Reema Kagti) and Salman, reportedly for Netflix.