Chandraprakash Dwivedi reveals conversation he had with Aditya Chopra after Samrat Prithviraj’s box office debacle

He added, “But one thing is that there is a lot of misinformation on social media. What I’ve realised is that you should put the resources that you’ve used during research in the film itself. You need to have a meaningful dialogue with the audience. I think if I had informed my audiences earlier that use of Urdu and Farsi is not new in Indian tradition, they would have received it better. After all, language is only a matter of communication rather than a matter of history.”

The filmmaker also suggested that star Akshay Kumar’s past behaviour and public comments might have turned audiences against him. Several people have complained that they don’t see him as the king, and Dwivedi implied that Kumar’s endorsement of a paan masala brand and the subsequent controversy it generated might have impacted the film’s performance.

This isn’t the first time that he’s spoken about Samrat Prithviraj’s failure. He recently told Navbharat Times, “YRF presented this story at a huge scale. But people had a problem. It’s still unclear to me what problem they had. The writers did an honest job about following the historical facts. We are well aware about our storytelling responsibilities.”

The period epic marks the second flop in a row for Kumar, after Bachchhan Paandey. He will attempt to bounce back with Raksha Bandhan, which will be released on August 11.