# Rajkumar Santoshi, Sunny Deol reunite for new action film 2026-08-26T19:51:33+00:00 | Entertainment | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi is set to reunite with actor Sunny Deol for a new action film, days after their period drama Batwara 1947 received a lukewarm box office response. Santoshi told Variety India that the project will be on the lines of their 1996 hit Ghatak, hinting at a return to the high-octane action drama style that defined their earlier collaborations. Santoshi said both producer Aamir Khan and Sunny Deol were disappointed that Batwara 1947 did not draw audiences to theatres. He noted that all of Deol's recent films, Gadar 2, Border 2 and Jaat, did great business, and expressed sadness if the actor's established action-hero image worked against him in the period drama. Batwara 1947, starring Deol, Preity Zinta, Shabana Azmi and Ali Fazal, was released on August 14, 2026. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Santoshi and Deol have delivered three of Hindi cinema's most enduring action hits together, Ghayal (1990), Damini (1993) and Ghatak (1996), each a cult favourite that ran for weeks in single screens. A fourth collaboration will test whether the duo's brand of raw, mass-market action still pulls crowds in a post-pandemic market where Deol himself proved his pull with Gadar 2 (Rs 525 crore plus). The key question is not creative chemistry but whether audiences show up for a non-franchise, original action film. No release date has been announced yet. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Leads with Santoshi's own quotes and reports box office response as stated by the filmmaker, no editorial framing This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Aamir Khan, Batwara 1947, Ghatak, Rajkumar Santoshi, Sunny Deol Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/rajkumar-santoshi-sunny-deol-reunite-for-new-action-film/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/rajkumar-santoshi-sunny-deol-reunite-for-new-action-film/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/