Brothers

About the film

Brothers is a 2015 Hindi-language sports action drama film, based on Mixed Martial arts (MMA) directed by Karan Malhotra and produced by Dharma Productions, Lionsgate Films and Endemol India. A co-production between India and the United States, it is an official remake of the 2011 American film Warrior, it stars Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra with Jacqueline Fernandez, Jackie Shroff and Shefali Shah in supporting roles.

The first look poster of the film was released on 9 March 2015 and film was released on 14 August 2015 on Independence Day weekend.

Plot

The film opens in medias res where street fighting issues are raised in Mumbai. Sports chairman Peter Braganza expresses his desire of making street fighting a legal sport and decides to open a league called Right 2 Fight (R2F). Meanwhile, imprisoned Garson "Gary" Fernandes, a recovering alcoholic and former MMA expert under rehabilitation, is released from his jail term, and his younger son Monty comes to pick him up. Monty gets tensed when his father asks about his elder son David and takes him away to their home. At home, Gary acts protective of all the belongings of his wife, Maria, who died many years ago. David, now a physics teacher, has a daughter with a kidney ailment. Unable to arrange money from the bank and other sources, he starts to earn money through street fights, as he was once a promising MMA fighter when he was younger. This stresses out his wife, Jenny, as she is worried about David. Meanwhile, Gary, who misses his wife Maria, starts hallucinating about her and violently attacks a mirror from self-hating about how he destroyed his family. Monty rushes to stop and comfort his father, realizing how much regret he has. Gary then tries to meet David, but the latter ends up throwing Monty and Gary out of his house in a rage after Gary sees his granddaughter and learns David named her after his mother, Maria.

Over a flashback, Monty is revealed to be Gary's illegitimate child. Maria nevertheless loved Monty, as she did David. The two brothers had a close, loving relationship until David was 23 and Monty was 15. On the night of Monty's 15th birthday, Gary came home drunk and apologized to Maria for destroying the family, but mentioned his lover Sarah's name, instead of Maria's. An enraged Maria confronted Gary about this, and in a drunken state, Gary hit Maria, who was injured from hitting her head on the furniture and died. A furious David pushed Gary aside; when Monty came close to Maria, who reached out to him before passing, David angrily pushed him away, holding his father and half-brother equally responsible for his mother's death. This is what created the rift between Gary, Monty, and David.

David later loses his job in school when principal Shobhit Desai learns about David's involvement in street fights. Monty, who wants to be a fighter, is then introduced to Suleiman Pasha, a fighting agent who is old friends with Gary, as they trained together. Suleiman fixes a match with Mustafa in which Monty is defeated. This enrages Gary, but Monty asks for a rematch with Mustafa, where Monty brutally defeats Mustafa after listening to his father’s advice and is declared a selected fighter for R2F by Peter. The fight is recorded and uploaded to YouTube, and soon Monty becomes an internet sensation. Monty undergoes training to become the R2F champion. Meanwhile, David, too, decides to be a full-time fighter, and Jenny encourages him to do so. Suleiman is initially unconvinced by David but arranges a match while Monty celebrates his victory at a bar. David is soon victorious in the fight and is accepted for R2F after convincing Suleiman of his true potential. R2F begins its grand debut and soon becomes a sensation as fighters from all over the world show their interest in the league. Monty easily defeats his opponents till he goes up against Luca, a fighter who is notorious for brutally knocking out his opponents(Gama and Potter) but manages to knock him out, shocking the audience as he becomes the first finalist. Meanwhile David the underdog comes up with a robust game plan t…

Production

Brothers was announced in late August 2014 by producer Karan Johar on his Twitter account; the film would mark the first collaboration of Akshay Kumar with both Johar and Fox Star Studios, as well as the second co-production between Johar's Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios after Johar's directorial venture My Name Is Khan, for which actor Sidharth Malhotra had served as an assistant director. Special stunt co-ordinators Eric Brown and Justin Yu from Los Angeles choreographed the film's stunt and MMA sequences.

For the role of an MMA fighter, Kumar had taken up a weight-specific diet and shot scenes depicting his actual workout. He also underwent a six-month training of several martial art forms including judo, kyūdō, aikido, and karate.

Key details