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AR Murugadoss, best known in Bollywood for helming Aamir Khan’s blockbuster Ghajini, collaborated with another Hindi cinema superstar, Salman Khan, on Sikandar. Though the film managed to cross Rs 100 crore at the box office, the numbers were considered underwhelming when weighed against its massive budget, grand scale and Salman’s superstar status. In a recent interaction, Murugadoss opened up about the challenges of working with a star like Salman and admitted to his own shortcomings in executing the film.He added that suggestions were also given on the spot to change the script.
Speaking on Valaipechu Voice, the filmmaker revealed how Salman’s turning up late on set impacted the shoot. He said, “It’s not easy to shoot with a star. Even day scenes, we have to shoot at night because he turns up to sets only by 8 PM. We are people who are used to shooting right from early mornings, but that’s not how things work there.” He said they would start shooting only after 9 pm and that too inside. “Almost everything was shot on green mat and we used VFX extensively to get the daylight effect for the scenes that were shot at night. On top of that, multiple people used to suggest a lot of spot changes on the set in the script,” he added.
Like Ghajini, Sikandar was built around an emotional arc and had the potential to strike a chord with audiences. However, Murugadoss confessed that he failed to translate the story effectively on screen. He said, “In the film, when the king loses his wife, her organs are donated to three different people. He then seeks them out, trying to fulfil the things he couldn’t do for her. In the process, he befriends an entire village. The story was emotional, but I couldn’t execute it well.”
While Ghajini was adapted from Murugadoss’s Tamil hit, Sikandar was an original script. The Tamil director admitted that the Hindi audience struggled to connect with his sensibilities, something that affected him personally. He shared, “I’m not saying I won’t return to Hindi cinema; I definitely will if I find my comfort zone. But when the audience can’t connect with my thinking, it affects me deeply.”
Expectations from Sikandar were sky-high, with Salman himself declaring before its release that the film would cross Rs 200 crore and even touching Rs 250 crore at the box office. However, the reality fell short. The film wrapped its theatrical run with just Rs 110 crore in the domestic market, far below expectations, especially given its reported Rs 200 crore budget.
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