The year 2023 gave Hindi cinema one of its most pleasantly unexpected successes in Lakadbaggha - a scrappy, martial-arts-driven tale that introduced audiences to Arjun Bakshi, a mild-mannered animal lover who moonlighted as a vigilante with a fluid, simian fighting style. Three years later, the franchise is back, and it has brought reinforcements. Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business arrives in theatres on November 6, 2026, once again directed by Anshuman Jha, who also returns in front of the camera as Arjun. The sequel's plot remains officially under wraps - the makers have guarded it like a state secret - but the cast list alone tells you everything about the film's ambitions.
If the first film was a modest, homegrown experiment in action storytelling, the second is a full-blown international affair. Headlining the new additions is none other than Tony Jaa, the Thai martial arts icon whose credits include Ong-Bak and the Fast & Furious franchise. He is joined by Indonesian action stalwart Sunny Pang, a familiar face from the brutal, acclaimed The Night Comes for Us, and Thai action veteran Dan Chupong, a longtime collaborator of Jha's whose presence signals that the fight choreography has been scaled up considerably. For a Hindi action franchise barely three years old, assembling this trio is no small coup.
For Jha, the sequel has clearly been a labour of love. The actor-filmmaker has long spoken about how the project was built on relationships forged within the global martial arts circuit, and the returning ensemble reflects that continuity. Tofan Pirani, Naseem Mughal, Sarah-Jane Dias and Adil Hussain all reprise their roles from the original, giving the new recruits a familiar emotional core to play against.
Ask anyone who watched the first Lakadbaggha what stayed with them, and the answer is usually the same: the monkey-style kung fu. The film's distinctive combat gimmick - a hero who fights with the agility and unpredictability of a langur - gave it a personality that most Hindi actioners of its scale could only dream of. With the sequel's subtitle explicitly invoking "the monkey business," one imagines the franchise is leaning even further into that identity. The casting of Tony Jaa, in particular, raises eyebrows in the best way. Jaa's own screen persona was built on a similarly animalistic, gravity-defying physicality, and putting him opposite Jha's simian brawler promises exactly the kind of old-school, clash-of-styles showdown that martial arts fans devour.
What remains a mystery is the story itself. The first film wove its action around animal welfare, with Arjun's devotion to creatures great and small serving as both his motivation and his moral compass. Whether the sequel continues down that path - and how figures like Jaa and Pang fit into it - is something the marketing has deliberately kept close to its chest. What is confirmed is that the film is an action vehicle, in Hindi, produced within Bollywood, and that it has been positioned for a November release - a festive corridor that suggests the makers are feeling confident.
There is also the matter of the cast's sheer pedigree. Adil Hussain lends the kind of gravitas that anchors a genre film's quieter stretches. Sarah-Jane Dias brings continuity and poise. Meanwhile, the pairing of Jha with three of Southeast Asia's most respected action performers speaks to a cross-border ambition that is still rare in mainstream Hindi cinema - a genuine bridging of industries rather than a token gesture.
For an industry still finding its footing in the martial arts genre, Lakadbaggha 2 represents something worth rooting for: a sequel that has expanded its canvas without losing the idiosyncratic soul that made the original a word-of-mouth favourite. The first film earned its audience the hard way, one enthusiastic recommendation at a time. The second arrives with considerably more anticipation and a far bigger arsenal.
Lakadbaggha 2: The Monkey Business releases in Hindi cinemas on November 6, 2026. For now, the plot stays hidden. But with Tony Jaa, Sunny Pang and Dan Chupong in the ring alongside Anshuman Jha's returning vigilante, the business promises to be anything but monkeying around.
