Why YRF’s Spy Universe Is Failing: From Pathaan’s Peak To Alpha’s Struggles

The once promising YRF Spy Universe, which delivered Bollywood’s first Rs 500 crore grosser with Pathaan, is now grappling with an uncertain future as recent releases like Alpha and War 2 fail to ignite the box office.

So this is it, huh? Have we seen the end of the YRF Spy Universe?

It took just three years for the cinematic universe, launched with such grand fanfare, to crumble so badly that its future is now in question.

The lack of confidence is evident. Alpha became the first film after the establishment of the franchise in 2023 to not feature a post-credit scene.

At the box office, Alpha may have posted decent opening weekend numbers despite average-to-poor reviews, but it is highly likely to end up as the lowest-grossing film in the franchise.

The future is now a blank page. The murmurs surrounding the rumoured big-budget Tiger vs Pathaan crossover have already died out.

Yash Raj Films is leaving no breadcrumbs for either the media or fans to figure out whether this is a full stop for the franchise or merely a regulated break.

So what went wrong? How did a franchise that housed one of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters just three years ago reach such a slump so quickly?

Some fans credit the success of the Dhurandhar duology, believing Aditya Dhar’s films changed the way audiences now view spy thrillers.

I disagree.

Comparing the Dhurandhar films with Pathaan or the Tiger saga is like comparing, forgive me for the audacity, Munich or Body of Lies with James Bond or Jason Bourne movies.

The downfall of the YRF Spy Universe actually began long before the first Dhurandhar film reached theatres in December 2025.

It actually began when this franchise officially came into existence with Pathaan.

Actually, erase that.

The downfall of the YRF Spy Universe began back in 2008, even before Ek Tha Tiger hit theatres.

The Marvel Effect That Changed Everything

2008.

The year Iron Man arrived in theatres and turned the billionaire anti-hero into a global sensation, while giving Robert Downey Jr’s fading career a spectacular revival.

I am not sure how many viewers realised then that the movie had a post-credit scene where Nick Fury walked into Tony Stark’s home and informed him about the Avengers Initiative.

It was the birth of a new cinematic universe. While movies sharing the same universe weren’t a novel idea — Quentin Tarantino’s films are widely believed to exist within one — the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) popularised and marketed the concept into becoming the biggest franchise of all time in terms of both scale and box office, later expanding into television and streaming series as well.

But the idea of a cinematic universe becoming a major selling point didn’t truly begin with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor or Captain America: The First Avenger. It was only after the billion-dollar success of The Avengers in 2012 that the industry truly recognised Kevin Feige’s brilliance in creating a shared universe where characters could seamlessly cross into each other’s stories before eventually assembling for spectacular team-ups.

While the MCU kept climbing until Avengers: Endgame became its peak, almost every major Hollywood studio tried replicating the formula.

None came close. Universal’s Dark Universe died with the failure of its very first film, the Tom Cruise-led The Mummy.

Even DC Studios, despite possessing icons like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, had to reboot its entire universe under a new creative vision, and even that is already showing cracks after Supergirl‘s disappointing performance.

The one non-MCU ‘universe’ that has remained surprisingly resilient is the Monsterverse featuring Godzilla and King Kong, though it has largely streamlined itself into giant showdowns between the two, instead of giving each of them their own movies.

India’s Jhugadu Cinematic Universes>

Indian cinematic universes took entirely different lessons from the MCU.

Either studios loudly announced ambitious cinematic universe plans before even releasing the first film, only for those plans to collapse when the movie underperformed. See Brahmastra.

Or they retrospectively connected previously released films and suddenly declared them part of the same universe. That has been the case with most Indian franchises carrying the ‘Cinematic Universe’ label.

Take the YRF Spy Universe, Maddock Horror Comedy Universe, Rohit Shetty’s Cop Universe or the Lokesh Cinematic Universe. None of them began with the intention of building a shared universe from their first films.

Yet once those connections were introduced, audiences loved the idea.

Who wasn’t thrilled when the protagonists of Stree battled Sarkata alongside Varun Dhawan’s Bhediya in Stree 2, with an Akshay Kumar cameo thrown in for good measure?

Who didn’t cheer when Suriya appeared as the overarching villain of the LCU in Vikram‘s epilogue?

Or when Ajay Devgn blasted into Ranveer Singh’s crime scene in Simmba in trademark Bajirao Singham style, with another Akshay Kumar cameo waiting at the end?

And of course, theatres erupted when Salman Khan’s Tiger arrived to rescue Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan in, well, Pathaan.

Circa 2026, however, the future of all these cinematic universes suddenly looks uncertain. Because they all committed the same mistakes. To understand what happened, let’s take the YRF Spy Universe as the case study.

The Pre-Pathaan Era Where Things Sailed Smoothly For YRF

Let’s travel back to 2012.

The very same year The Avengers was setting the global box office on fire, Salman Khan was doing something similar in India. Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger introduced audiences to Salman Khan’s suave, ultra-cool R&AW agent Tiger Singh Rathore, whose scarf became a style statement of its own. It arrived when Salman Khan could seemingly do no wrong at the box office, and remains one of the better films of that blockbuster phase.

Despite its stylish action scenes, Ek Tha Tiger felt grounded. Its emotional heartbeat lay in the romance between Tiger and Katrina Kaif’s ISI agent Zoya.

The chemistry was terrific, the songs were memorable, and the climax now feels almost impossible to imagine in today’s hate-driven environment, with Tiger choosing love over his own organisation.

Audiences embraced it wholeheartedly. A sequel was inevitable.

Ali Abbas Zafar replaced Kabir Khan for Tiger Zinda Hai, making the film grander, more action-packed and bigger in scope. Yet its hostage crisis inside Taliban-controlled territory still gave the film a tactile realism.

That realism admittedly disappeared during the climax where Tiger became virtually invincible, escaping impossible situations with little plausible explanation.

Fans didn’t care. Salman Khan’s box office dominance was at its peak, Vishal-Shekhar delivered a chartbuster soundtrack, and Tiger Zinda Hai became an even bigger blockbuster.

Then came War in 2019.

Its biggest attraction was pitting Hrithik Roshan against Tiger Shroff, who himself was enjoying an excellent run at the box office while openly idolising Hrithik. Although another spy thriller, Siddharth Anand made War noticeably flashier than the Tiger films, with face-swapping surgeries, aircraft hijacks and elaborate chases across snowy landscapes. The movie was a huge hit.

Even at that point, I genuinely don’t think Aditya Chopra had a cinematic universe in mind. There isn’t the slightest indication of it in War. In fact, Anupriya Goenka plays a R&AW officer here after portraying a nurse in Tiger Zinda Hai.

Yet, War unknowingly established the tonal template for everything that followed. And that has a lot to do with Siddharth Anand directing the next film.

The Film That Heralded The Universe

Pathaan was a blockbuster even before it reached cinema halls.

It brought Shah Rukh Khan back to mainstream commercial entertainers after an experimental phase that yielded little box office success. His three-year absence certainly helped, as did the controversy surrounding Besharam Rang song. Vishal-Shekhar delivered another hugely successful soundtrack.

Like War, Pathaan embraced a larger-than-life approach.

Shah Rukh Khan was the stylish super-spy, Deepika Padukone the irresistible femme fatale, while John Abraham swaggered away with being arguably the franchise’s finest villain. And then there was this promise of the YRF Spy Universe franchise.

But Pathaan did more than simply carry the ‘Universe’ label for namesake. It officially confirmed the shared universe through its casting.

Not only did Salman Khan’s Tiger appear in a scene-stealing cameo, but Ashutosh Rana returned as Colonel Luthra from War, firmly establishing that all three franchises now coexisted.

Audiences loved this crossover. Pathaan became Bollywood’s first Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) grosser in India and remains the highest-grossing film in the franchise.

Buoyed by the success, YRF quickly announced ambitious expansion plans. Tiger 3 was already underway, War 2 was confirmed, a female-led spin-off that eventually became Alpha entered development, and rumours even emerged about a prequel centred on John Abraham’s Jim.

Everything looked perfect. Yet, beneath all those celebrations, the cracks had already begun to appear.

The Franchise Rejected Individuality

Tiger 3 earned enough to avoid disaster but failed to become the blockbuster many expected after Pathaan. At the very least, it should have comfortably surpassed Tiger Zinda Hai.

It didn’t.

That was the franchise’s first major warning sign. War 2, despite introducing Jr NTR to Bollywood, became the franchise’s first outright flop.

Its failure shook YRF badly enough that Alpha suffered repeated delays before finally releasing in 2026.

Ironically, the roots of these failures can be traced back to Pathaan.

YRF successfully copied the MCU formula on the surface: A hugely entertaining action film, a superstar in top form, a memorable villain, crossover cameos and, for the first time, post-credit scenes. The problem was what came afterwards.

Unlike the MCU, which has Kevin Feige overseeing every creative decision full-time, the YRF Spy Universe simply had… Aditya Chopra, who also oversees the rest of YRF’s enormous slate. A franchise like this needed someone more driven to co-ordinate the films within one umbrella that allows individual films to flourish on their own while carrying that universe link.

Before Pathaan, every sub-franchise had its own identity. The Tiger films felt different from War.

After Pathaan, everything started feeling cut from the same cloth. The villains were always this rogue who rebelled against their own organisation; the hero always has to run from his own organisation.

Even the crossover cameos lost their novelty. Salman Khan’s arrival in Pathaan was exhilarating. Shah Rukh Khan returning the favour in Tiger 3 simply felt like unnecessary padding in an already bloated film.

The Wrong Directors At The Helm

The choice of directors mattered too.

Kabir Khan, Siddharth Anand and Ali Abbas Zafar have proven themselves capable action filmmakers, even if each is now going through a relatively lean phase.

Maneesh Sharma, however, was an unusual choice. He gave us the delightful Band Baaja Baaraat and Shuddh Desi Romance, and the under-rated Fan, but Fan also demonstrated that staging action wasn’t exactly his strongest suit.

It became evident in Tiger 3 that while Sharma is a capable storyteller, large-scale action spectacles aren’t his natural territory.

Ayan Mukerji proved an even more divisive appointment. Considering the mixed response to Brahmastra, many were surprised he was handed War 2 instead of Siddharth Anand.

Unfortunately, War 2 only reinforced those doubts. The screenplay was weak, the direction lacked urgency, and the action became so ludicrous that even Siddharth Anand’s biggest admirers felt it had gone too far.

Jr NTR was perfectly decent, but his role often felt like calculated stunt casting to widen the film’s pan-Indian appeal.

The first War never needed such tactics.

Where Dhurandhar Got It Right

I didn’t intend to bring the Dhurandhar films into this discussion, but there is one criticism consistently levelled at the YRF Spy films that they highlight perfectly.

The Dhurandhar films felt tangible.

Even their action scenes carried weight because Aditya Dhar preferred shooting in actual locations instead of relying heavily on studio sets.

The YRF Spy films increasingly looked artificial. The overuse of green screens became apparent from War onwards, with little effort to convincingly disguise them. That visual authenticity which Ek Tha Tiger, and to some extent Tiger Zinda Hai, had established simply vanished.

For a franchise with YRF’s resources, that regression is difficult to forgive.

I don’t buy the argument that the Dhurandhar films have completely transformed audience expectations from action cinema. Nor do I believe audiences have suddenly stopped embracing stories that advocate aman ki aasha or refuse to paint an entire nation with the same brush to elevate the hero’s patriotism.

After all, Pathaan arrived when angry sentiments and chest-thumping shows of patriotism were already on the rise. It still became a historic blockbuster despite starring a Khan, carrying that title, and weathering the manufactured outrage over an orange bikini.

The formula hasn’t changed much. Give audiences a genuinely entertaining film with exciting action, memorable characters, a superstar hero and chartbuster songs, and they will turn up in droves.

That’s exactly what the YRF Spy Universe has been struggling to deliver lately. Since the pandemic, audiences have grown far less forgiving of mediocrity masquerading as big-budget spectacles. Foreign locations, flashy CGI, heroines in bikinis and endless slow-motion shots are no longer enough to compensate for lacklustre storytelling and bring audiences into theatres.

Can The Spy Universe Afford To Continue?

Perhaps the biggest problem Pathaan unintentionally created for the YRF Spy Universe was Shah Rukh Khan himself.

The YRF Spy Universe now possesses Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan under one banner, alongside Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt, Kiara Advani, Jr NTR, Sharvari and Anil Kapoor.

It’s an incredible roster. It is also an incredibly expensive one.

Unlike Marvel stars, these actors aren’t tied down by long-term franchise contracts. Coordinating their schedules is a logistical nightmare, while paying them all would send budgets soaring into dangerous territory.

A true Avengers-style film featuring Tiger, Pathaan and Kabir now risks becoming financially impossible. Especially when the relatively modestly budgeted Saiyaara ended up becoming YRF’s most profitable film in recent years. The hesitation isn’t difficult to understand.

Alpha‘s Bad Placement

Which is why I almost feel sorry for Alpha.

The film genuinely tries to address some of the criticisms aimed at its predecessors. It largely shoots on real locations. It avoids unnecessary globe-trotting. The action is competently staged. Shiv Rawail appears far more comfortable directing this genre than either Maneesh Sharma or Ayan Mukerji.

Yet, Alpha struggles to establish an identity of its own. The plot bears uncomfortable similarities to Black Widow, while Alia Bhatt’s character often feels like Natasha Romanoff’s body language fused with Carol Danvers’ dry persona.

It wants to discuss super soldiers while simultaneously presenting itself as a grounded action thriller, but the screenplay never convincingly balances those ambitions.

As much as I admire Alia Bhatt as an actress, she never quite projects the commanding action-hero presence the role demands, unlike what she achieved in Jigra.

In the end, Alpha might have received a warmer reception had it arrived before Tiger 3 and War 2. Instead, it arrived when the franchise was already burning out, leaving it unsure how to reignite the fire.

The fire that was lit the brightest by Pathaan. And in doing so, it accidentally created the scalds that begun the franchise’s downfall.

An Uncertain, Almost Invisible Future

Alpha ends by promising that Sita and Durga will eventually join forces with Tiger, Pathaan and Kabir.

Despite Hrithik Roshan’s cameo in the movie, only a miracle can make that crossover film happen now.

If the YRF Spy Universe borrowed its very existence from the MCU playbook, perhaps it should also borrow Kevin Feige’s latest act of desperation: Bringing Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans back for Avengers: Doomsday. PS: Yes, even MCU is flailing now.

Unfortunately, that’s one risk Aditya Chopra doesn’t really need to take any more. Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan also don’t seem to be eager for his call.

The cow has been milked dry and all that’s left are a bunch of bones wrapped in skin.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff