'Mission Tiger' completely different from 'Roar': Director

Director Dipu Karunakaran says that his upcoming film "Mission Tiger" on tigers has no relation whatsoever with another film "Roar" which is also about the national animal of the country.

Asked about the comparison, Karunkaran said: "'Mission Tiger' is completely different from 'Roar', both the Hindi as well as English from 1981. While the English 'Roar' had numerous animals, so anyway there can't be any comparison.

"As far as the recent Hindi one is concerned, first and foremost, that film was an out-and-out commercial film while ours is a message-driven film for a social cause. Secondly their film had a lot of youngsters in a group with girls wearing revealing outfits and dance numbers, things which are not there in our film."

The English film "Roar" had released in 1981 while the Hindi "Roar: Tiger of the Sundarbans" had released in 2014.

"Mission Tiger" stars Vijay Raaz in the lead, playing the role of a tiger poacher due to the helpless financial situation at home. The script of the film is penned by a real-life Indian Forest Service officer, which was adapted into a screenplay by Karunakaran.

He added: "Their film was definitely about tigers but definitely not about tiger poaching like ours. Moreover, due to the big budget of their film, lot of emphasis was given to VFX, visual effects, chase sequences and action rather than on tigers. But our film is not about these elements, and our film is shot in real locations with real tigers. It speaks about the cause, saving the tigers."

"We are not trying to portray the film as a youth-oriented film by showing young girls or dance numbers, our film is about the message of tiger poaching prevalent in the country and the need to save tigers by not just youth, but each and every citizen of the country," he said.

"Mission Tiger", jointly produced by Saju Fortune and Leegesh S.L. under the banner Fortune Cinemas releases on the occasion of International Tiger Day, July 29.

--IANS

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