Four decades after a boy named Hrithik Roshan shared the screen with Rajinikanth in Bhagwaan Dada, the two are set to meet again on a film set, this time as equals. The Bollywood star has been confirmed for a cameo in Jailer 2 and has locked his shooting dates, Variety India reported on Thursday in an exclusive that a dozen Indian outlets quickly followed.
Sun Pictures, which produces the Nelson Dilipkumar film, has made no official announcement, and the role remains undescribed. Hindustan Times and India Today added the detail that gives the casting its edge: the cameo slot was earlier in discussions with Shah Rukh Khan, and Roshan now steps into it. None of the principals has commented.
The reunion is the kind of trivia Indian cinema treasures. In the 1986 Hindi film Bhagwaan Dada, produced by his family and starring Rajinikanth in the title role, a young Hrithik appeared as a child actor years before his 2000 debut made him a star overnight. The two industries have grown apart and back together since, and the boy from that set returns to a Rajinikanth frame as one of Hindi cinema’s biggest action stars.
Jailer 2 continues the story of Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, the retired jailer Rajinikanth played in the 2023 original, one of Tamil cinema’s biggest hits of that year. Nelson directs again with Anirudh Ravichander composing, and the sequel has been shooting through 2026 with Sun Pictures guarding its cast list closely.
The first Jailer turned its cameos into a marketing engine, with Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar and Jackie Shroff appearances engineered for separate regional audiences. A Hindi A-lister completes that map. Roshan, fresh off the expansion of the YRF spy universe he anchors with War, gives the sequel a north Indian hook the original never had, and gives Sun Pictures a pan-India argument for its most expensive project.
What remains unconfirmed is everything official. Sun Pictures has not announced the casting, the shooting window for Roshan’s portions has not been dated publicly, and whether the Shah Rukh Khan discussions collapsed over schedule or terms is unreported. The studio’s pattern suggests a formal reveal will come as a produced announcement video rather than a press note, and until it does, the casting rests on the trade press that broke it.
