AR Murugadoss reveals why Rajinikanth’s Darbar and Mahesh Babu’s Spyder didn’t meet the expectations

AR Murugadoss opens up about why his films Darbar and Spyder didn't do well at the box office.

Chennai | April 4, 2023 03:39 PM IST

4 min read

AR Murugadoss’ production venture August 16 1947 will hit screens on April 7.

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AR Murugadoss was the first director to enter the Rs 100 crore club in Indian cinema with the earth-shattering success of Ghajini in 2008. So, far he has directed about 13 films of which his last four films have failed to meet the expectations he has set for himself. His rough patch started with Akira (2016). However, Spyder and Darbar are the projects which took a toll on his image of a director with the midas touch. Both films are considered to be lost opportunities.

Darbar was released in 2020 and Murugadoss has not announced a film till now. After a long while, the filmmaker opened up about the failure of Spyder and Darbar in an interview with Galatta Plus. While talking about Spyder, Murugadoss said, “I did a calculation with Spyder–at a time when a huge pan-Indian concept was non-existent. The idea was to balance the film out for both Tamil and Telugu audiences. I calculated that the Tamil audience will watch the film for SJ Suryah, and the Telugu audience will watch it for Mahesh Babu. Since I can’t project Mahesh Babu as a huge commercial hero in Tamil, I made his role a bit subtle. However, this resulted in severe backlash in Telugu as they thought that a Tamil director has downplayed a Superstar like Mahesh Babu and elevated SJ Suryah because he is his friend. However, I have put the same effort into films that worked and the one that turned out to be average.”

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“About Darbar, I started miscalculating that the art of filmmaking and screenwriting are coming very easily for me. So, because of that when Rajini sir gave me dates in March, I didn’t want to miss the film for no reason. I started the film in March. By June, the rainy season starts in Mumbai, and I had to wrap up the film before that. On top of that, he was planning to start a political party in August. Also, back then it was said that the film might be the last one of Rajini sir. So, I misjudged and started the film in a hurry,” the filmmaker added.

He continued, “So, however talented one might be, if he doesn’t plan a project well, it wouldn’t work. You need enough time to plan everything from set to locations to make-up to make a film believable. Aamir Khan once told me, ‘I will tell you a secret. If someone is announcing the release date of a film even before starting the shoot, 50 per cent chance that the film is already a flop. Start a film and see if it is coming out the way you wanted it to. See rushes and once about 80 per cent of the film is done then lock the release date.’ I realised that (after Darbar).”

ALSO READ | AR Murugadoss says he’s not planning to make Ghajini 2, claims people are ‘fed up’ with the ‘pan-India’ tag

AR Murugadoss has now taken a resolution that he wouldn’t compromise his film for anything including things like the dates of a big star or a lot of money.

Currently, Murugadoss is promoting his upcoming production venture titled August 16 1947. Directed by NS Ponkumar, the film has Gautham Karthik in the lead role.

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