At a pre-release event for Jailer 2, Rajinikanth returned to an old identity: the Bengaluru bus conductor. The 75-year-old actor said he still regards his five years with the Bengaluru Transport Service as the job he loved most — above the film career that made him one of Indian cinema’s biggest stars.
“I loved my job as a bus conductor much more,” he said. He added that he still visits Bengaluru, that seeing the bus makes him happy, and that the khaki uniform can still move him to tears. For a promotional programme built around conversation with the cast and crew rather than a conventional audio launch, the comments set a reflective tone ahead of the film’s release.
The Hindi release is staying in theatres
The event also served as a clarification. Sun Pictures dismissed reports that the Hindi version of Jailer 2 would skip cinemas, confirming it will open theatrically on October 15 alongside the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada versions. Pen Marudhar Entertainment will distribute the film across North India. The clarification followed speculation about the theatrical distribution and reports of disagreements over the digital release window; the makers said the Hindi schedule remained unchanged.
The confirmation matters because the sequel follows the 2023 blockbuster Jailer, which gave Rajinikanth’s retired jailer Tiger Muthuvel Pandian a wide footprint beyond the Tamil market. Any uncertainty about a Hindi theatrical run would have changed how the Hindi audience — and exhibitors — treat the sequel.
Why the conductor story lands
The conductor years are not a casual aside. They function as Rajinikanth’s origin story, the pre-stardom labour that makes his screen persona feel earned. When he says he finds superstardom difficult to relate to, he is drawing a line between his public scale and his private self-image. That distance is part of what keeps the star legible to audiences who have watched him for decades.
- The release: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada versions open October 15.
- The distribution: Pen Marudhar Entertainment handles North India.
- The sequel: Nelson Dilipkumar directs, Sun Pictures produces, Anirudh Ravichander composes.
What carries over from Jailer
Rajinikanth returns as Tiger Muthuvel Pandian. The ensemble includes Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie Shroff, Mithun Chakraborty, Vidya Balan, SJ Suryah and Suraj Venjaramoodu, with Anirudh Ravichander back as composer. The multilingual release keeps Jailer 2 positioned as a pan-Indian theatrical event, not a streaming-first afterthought.
For Hindi cinema followers, the October 15 date now has a clearer shape: the sequel is staying on the big screen, and its leading man is telling the same story he has carried since his Bengaluru days — that the conductor’s job was the one he loved most.
Source: Gulf News
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