Sikandar, starring Salman Khan, might not have been a great performance at the box office, and even many critics termed this as his weakest film. Salman, however, has no regrets about doing the film. Indeed, he has harshly criticised the director of the film AR Murugadoss, who has accused him of reporting late at night to shoot the film.
Salman Khan Slams AR Murugadoss
In the Weekend Ka Vaar episode of Bigg Boss 19, Salman addressed the topic of his last release Sikandar, and made fun of AR Murugadoss, who had criticised Salman over his tardiness on the film set.
Comedian Ravi Gupta was present in the show and requested Salman to mention the movies which he regrets doing. In retrospect, Salman used the titles of Suryavanshi (1992) and Nishchay (1992).
When Ravi asked whether there was one in the recent past, Salman replied, Nayi mein se koi nahi hai… log kehte hain Sikandar par main nahi manta, uska plot bahut acha tha (I have not regretted doing any film in the recent past). They say it can be Sikandar but I do not think so. The plot of the film was good).”
After this, Salman baselessly attacked AR Murugadoss due to the failure of Sikandar at the box office.
Salman replied sarcastically, Lekin kya hai na mein main set ke 9 baje raat pahuchta tha, toh usme gadbad ho gayi. meri pasaliyan tooti thi, isne jo hamare director (AR Murugadoss) sahab hain unhone ye kaha. Lekin unki picture (Madharaasi) abhi ek release hui hai jisme actor 6 baje pahuchta tha (I used to come to sets by 9 PM and that did not augur well.
That is what the director said, but my rib was broken. Another one of his pictures was recently published, and the movie star would arrive at the set by 6).
Salman also talked of producer Sajid Nadiadwala and Murugadoss attempting to avoid the attacks on the film.
“Toh pahle toh ye picture thi Murugadoss aur Sajid Nadiadwala ki. Uske baad Sajid pahli kalti, Murugadoss wapas se hat gaya wahan se seedha South mein picture ki (Previously the film was owned by Murugadoss and Sajid Nadiadwala and Sajid later escaped. Then Murugadoss too went away and shot a movie in South),” said Salman.
The actor of Tiger 3, then indirectly made fun of the failure of the box office hits of Madharaasi and added, “Madharaasi karke picture unhone direct ki hai jo ki release hui, bahut badi film hai and utni ki badi, Sikandar se badi blockbuster (He has directed a movie called Madharaasi). It is a huge and a larger blockbuster than Sikandar).
What AR Murugadoss said about Salman Khan?
After the release of Sikandar, Murugadoss, in an interview, discussed the reasons why the movie was not a box-office success.
Murugadoss said, “Shooting with a star is not an easy thing. Even day shots, we have to shoot at night since he arrives at the set at the latest time, which is 8 PM.”
Murugadoss added, “We are accustomed to shooting immediately early mornings, but that is not how it works there, and by that I mean it caused the other actors on the set to shoot as well, and I added that there would be four kids in the shot, and we have to shoot them coming out of school at 2 AM! They would get weary at that hour and generally fell asleep. It was an emotional story, but I was not able to do it well, he said.”
Sikandar did not hit with the audience. Produced on an estimated budget of 200 crore, the movie grossed just 185 crore in the international market, according to Sacnilk.
