Awarapan 2 Movie Review: Emraan Hashmi Returns as Shivam

19 years is a long time to wait for a sequel, but that’s how long it took for Awarapan to come out (2007) and Awarapan 2 (2026). It never made money at the box office, but it developed a loyal fan base over the years through its music and Emraan Hashmi’s axed and wounded portrayal as Shivam Pandit. It’s a hard thing to rehash without belittling.

The sequel to the film follows Hashmi again as Nitin Kakkar directs the film, which is set to hit theaters on 14 August 2026, along with Disha Patani and Shabana Azmi. So does it deserve its own slot with the cult original or does it just take its name? Here’s an honest look at how it holds up.

Awarapan 2 Movie Overview

Awarapan 2 is a Hindi action thriller film directed by Nitin Kakkar and produced by Vishesh Bhatt’s Vishesh Films. It features Emraan Hashmi, Disha Patani and Shabana Azmi in the lead, with Suvinder Vicky and Puran Gabbi filling up the supporting cast and roles. The movie will premiere on 14 August 2026 and will be rated U/A 16+. It will follow the events of the original by almost 20 years as Shivam Pandit’s old demons come back to haunt him in a world of vengeance and redemption.

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Awarapan 2 Movie Cast and Crew

The film’s main draw is Emraan Hashmi as Shivam Pandit, who even made him a cult favorite in 2007 and by all accounts, he still is the film’s best. He is paired with Disha Patani as the lead actress and veteran actress Shabana Azmi is also part of the cast in an important role. A few reviewers mentioned that there wasn’t the full extent of Suvinder Vicky’s talent displayed here, but he is still a prominent part of Suvinder Vicky.

Apart from Vijayant Kohli who landed the role after auditions, Atul Kumar, Aniruddh Rawal, and Puran Gabbi have all joined as a supporting cast for the film, and Puran Gabbi plays the antagonist of the film as well. Salil Acharya has his acting debut in the part of Ronnie.

Nitin Kakkar will also be replacing Mohit Suri as the director behind the scenes of the sequel, as the former was considered but didn’t get the chance to helm the second installment. But there are a couple of instances in which that is felt, particularly when scenes are intended to evoke the same emotion as before. The film was produced by Vishesh Films as it was known in the past.The film is a continuation of the studio’s association with the franchise, created by Vishesh Bhatt.

Always an integral part of the Awarapan world, the sequel has its own top-notch lineup of singers who will carry on that tradition, Mithoon, Amaal Mallik, Jeet Gannguli, Akhil Sachdeva and Wasif Ahmad will have the songs to their name and Raju Singh will be doing the background score work.

There were some difficulties in production. While shooting for an action sequence in the desert of Rajasthan, Hashmi sustained a serious injury to his abdomen, and had to undergo surgery, but he came back to the set earlier than scheduled. Produced from September 2025 to June 2026, most of the areas the film was shot in were Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bangkok and Malaysia, making it a much larger and more refined version of the original than not everyone would concur.

Casting members and their roles:

Awarapan 2 Movie Storyline & Plot Summary

This is almost 20 years after the first movie was released and the Shivam Pandit you’ll see in this film is not the same man at all, at least on the surface. He’s been away from the crime world that had taken everything from his life, attempting to leave behind the past. A peace is never lasting. The past catches up with him, the new ones loom, and Shivam finds himself drawn back into the very violence and betrayal he had fled from for years.

Themes the original was renowned for, namely, pain, redemption, and a vengeance-based life’s cost, abound in the story. The sequel doesn’t present Shivam with a fresh conflict but rather rehashes his old one which was bound to come back to haunt him. That’s a good place to start on paper, but several reviewers thought that it doesn’t really go into how that world affected him psychologically. Rather than that the story follows genre conventions like action sequences, a romance subplot, and a villain subplot with Puran Gabbi’s character, it doesn’t give enough weight to the emotional nuances that made the first movie great.

The shooting of the film took place in real and various locations in Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bangkok and Malaysia, thus widening the visual canvas of the original film. That scale really does or doesn’t help the storyline is debatable, though some critics say it takes away from the character’s internal conflict. Yet the thrust of the narrative, a broken man thrust back into darkness, remains faithful to what fans of the 2007 movie had hoped for when they signed up.

Awarapan 2 Movie Budget & Box Office Collection

Awarapan 2 started with a bang, grossing nearly ₹22 crore net in India on Day 1 and nearly ₹29 crore globally including overseas gross. This is a good beginning to a sequel to a real flop, and has proven how much a cult film and its sense of nostalgia can pay off. The film opened on the eve of Independence Day and was making head to head competition with early bookings and footfall with Batwara 1947 early indicators have it in touch with Hashmi’s movie. While there have been no official figures released, the lengthy production has been shot in a number of different countries and it’s definitely a much larger shot than the original.

Final Word

While not quite capturing the magic of the original, which was a cult favorite thanks to the lighting in a bottle, Awarapan 2 doesn’t have to. Even with the best of acting that Emraan Hashmi can muster, the film is worth watching because of the scenes that the script doesn’t deserve. If you’re looking for a spiritual sequel with a similarly emotional depth, you may come out a little disappointed. If you only want to watch Shivam Pandit one last time, broken and brooding then this is just that.

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