Fearless and United Guards FAU-G, Indian alternative to famous battle royale game PUBG, set to enter

FAU-G, a made-in-India alternative to PUBG Mobile, was announced on Friday by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. The game is being published by Bengaluru-based nCore games.

FAU-G is short for Fearless and United-Guards, and tweets say it will donate 20 percent of its revenue to the government's fund-raising initiative Bharat Ke Veer, a trust started by Kumar.

The announcement comes close on the heels of the government ban on PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite alongside other 116 mobile apps in the country that had a linkage with China. The game was quite popular among young Indian mobile gamers.

Akshay Kumar promoted the development of FAU-G through Twitter. It is touted to be a contribution towards the “Atma Nirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India) campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He posted, "Supporting PM @narendramodi’s AtmaNirbhar movement, proud to present an action game,Fearless And United-Guards FAU-G. Besides entertainment, players will also learn about the sacrifices of our soldiers. 20% of the net revenue generated will be donated to @BharatKeVeer Trust #FAUG.

Indian game industry veteran Vishal Gondal also took to Twitter to promote FAU-G.

Reports say the game is expected to launch by the end of October with its first-level set in the Galwan Valley backdrop. This will be followed by third-person shooting gameplay in the subsequent releases.

The game will be available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

The launch of FAU:G also comes at a time anti-Chinese sentiment is high in India with traders and entrepreneurs echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for an "atma-nirbhar" or self-reliant India.

India's first app ban in June, which prohibited ByteDance-owned TikTok, led to a surge in the use of local video-sharing apps with even media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises launching its own app.