From Local to Global: Anshuman Jha & Sarah-Jane Dias On Advocating Animal Rights In ‘Lakadbaggha 2’ & Uniqueness Of Crafting An Indian Action Franchise Rooted In Local Marital Arts

Deadline’s Local to Global series touched down in Bruges, Belgium, last week where we sat down with actor-director Anshuman Jha and actress Sarah-Jane Dias to discuss their upcoming Indian action title Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business. The film, which had its world premiere at the Razor Reel Flanders Film Festival where it was the runner-up for the Audience Choice Award, is the second instalment of Jha’s franchise and intersects local Indian mythology with indigenous martial arts all while advocating for animal conservation.

The project is produced by First Ray Films and Matta Cinema and follows Arjun Bakshi (Jha) who, weeks before his wedding, is shattered when his fiancée (Dias) disappears while on a mission in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Her trail leads to a deadly island where an underground fight tournament hides the auction of the last surviving Yaki monkey – forcing Arjun to fight not just for love, but for a life that cannot speak for itself.

“I feel that animals are going extinct because humanity is going extinct,” said Jha. “So, the next evolution of heroes or ‘superheroes’ is going to be somebody who’s not more powerful, but somebody who will have a lot more compassion. Being ordinary is the real superpower and that was the root of the birth story of Arjun Bakshi.”

The first instalment of the Hindi-language franchise sees vegan Arjun travel to Kolkata where he turns into a vigilante after discovering an illegal underground animal trade syndicate. The latest film heads to Indonesia, where it puts a spotlight on the Yaki Monkey, whose population has been reduced from 50,000 in1990 to 4,500 today. “This is a real-world problem,” said Jha. “I feel films need to not just entertain but also have a voice, especially for those who are voiceless and this story is in essence about that.”

India has a rich martial arts heritage, particularly through Kalaripayattu, also known as Kalari, which Jha says has rarely been conveyed on screen.

“We are the second biggest film industry in the world, so technically there should be more films featuring this,” he says. “The effort was to bring a very 1980s pulp action genre fan to the screen. I’m a huge Bruce Lee fan. He’s had a huge influence on my life and a lot of who I am, what I believe in and how I live goes in alignment with the principles of martial arts.”

Dias noted the film’s unconventional approach to portraying an action hero: “Quintessentially, when there is fighting in a film, it’s over love or someone wanting to take over the world or they are some dark force, but I have never seen it done to protect animals or the environment, especially in a superhero action film and I think that’s actually really unique.”

Jha worked with master fight choreographer Kecha Khamphakdee, who is behind the iconic fight scenes in Ong-Bak, to design the combat scenes in the latest film. Tony Jaa, the star of Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior makes his Bollywood/Hindi film debut in the film while Dan Chupong, another star from the Ong-Bak world, plays the antagonist in the film.

When pressed about the challenges of Indian films traveling outside its own borders, Jha stressed that he was conscious of this when making the film and hopes it’s a story that Western audiences can embrace because of its universal themes and the fact that it’s an atypical Indian independent film.

“I want this film to travel the world,” says Jha. “I feel like there’s an emotional quotient – EQ – and there’s cinema quotient. I think because we have 1.6 billion people in India, sometimes as filmmakers we get very happy with just what we have. The truth is, there are 5.4 billion people outside of India. So, there’s a huge audience out there and the cinema quotient of audiences outside of India is very different from the inside of India.”