Director Prashanth Neel has described Dragon, starring Jr NTR, as his biggest attempt yet at making a patriotic film.
The action drama, which is targeting a June 2027 release, has already created huge buzz after its title glimpse was released on the eve of NTR’s birthday. The glimpse crossed more than 49 million views within two days.
Speaking to Variety, Neel said, “This is probably going to be our biggest attempt at making a patriotic movie.”
The glimpse introduced the film’s dark world, built around British colonial rule, the opium trade, and post-independence crime networks.
According to the film’s premise, the British controlled a major part of the global opium trade through Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle.
After they left India in 1947, that empire split into two rival factions; the Afghan Trading Company and the Golden Trading Company.
Neel said rumours about reshoots are false. He clarified that the team had only taken a break because Jr NTR wanted to build his body naturally for the film, without using CGI.
“They are just rumours. We never reshot a single scene till now. The only reason we took some time off was because he wanted to be authentically fit for the movie without any CGI. He wanted to build a body,” Neel said.
He also denied speculation that Dragon is a spy film.
In the film, Jr NTR plays Luger, a character named after the German Luger pistol. Luger is shown as an assassin who is sent to Afghanistan at the age of 10 in 1947 and trained to become the chief enforcer of the Afghan Trading Company.
Neel called Luger the most morally complex character he has attempted so far. He said the idea is to present a very negative character, but in a way that the audience understands why he became that way.
“We are trying to portray a very, very negative character, but a character that you understand why he’s negative,” he said.
Neel said childhood remains the emotional core of his films, and Dragon is no different. He said he grew up watching Hindi films of the 1970s, where the hero’s childhood played a major role in shaping his character.
“My childhood basically becomes my biggest emotion in my movies, and in Dragon also it is my biggest strength,” he said.
The director also explained his idea of elevation scenes. According to him, elevation should come from drama and emotion, not just from action or visuals.
“When you talk about an elevation scene, it always comes from drama. If I am not invested in the drama, then I will not be elevated when I see what I see. It just cannot be a set piece,” he said.
Neel added that such scenes must be built carefully from the beginning, like placing small clues before the big payoff. He said a strong elevation scene should work like a song that audiences want to watch again and again.
The director also said Dragon will be different from his earlier films in one major way. This time, he wants the actors to carry more of the film’s emotional weight.
“This is the first time that I’m probably going to let my actors do the heavy lifting for me in the movie,” he said.
The film features Anil Kapoor, Biju Menon and Rukmini Vasanth in important roles. Music is being composed by Ravi Basrur, who earlier worked on KGF and Salaar.
Neel said Dragon belongs to the larger post-independence dystopian world he has built through KGF and Salaar, but its intention is different. Though the glimpse has a dark tone, he said the patriotic angle is central to the film.
On sequels, Neel said any follow-up to Dragon will depend on audience response. However, he confirmed that the Salaar sequel will begin immediately after Dragon is completed.
“That will happen immediately after the Dragon movie is done,” he said.
Regarding KGF 3, Neel said he does not yet know when he will be able to work on it.
The filmmaker also revealed that after completing his current commitments, he wants to move away from large-scale action films. He has been developing a mythological series for nearly two decades and wants to write and direct it before taking up anything else.
Neel also said he has always wanted to make a small, intimate drama, but his current commitments have kept him away from that idea.
Speaking about international release plans for Dragon, Neel said the team will take a call after watching the finished film.
“We cannot make better visuals than what Hollywood people have made, but we can try and make a better emotion than what they have made,” he said.
He added that Dragon is a very Indian film, but one that can also appeal to international audiences.