Game Changer director Shankar says he is not ‘satisfied’ with how Ram Charan-starrer turned out, denies spending Rs 75 crore on four songs

Game Changer was one of the most anticipated film of the year. First announced in February 2021, the film took nearly four years to hit the screens. Game Changer was also star Ram Charan’s first film in a full-fledged lead role since SS Rajamouli’s RRR in 2022. Yet, the film failed to live up to fan expectations. Having reportedly been made on a budget of over Rs 400 crore, the film has only managed to earn Rs 107 crore in India in under a week, according to Sacnilk.

Also starring Kiara Advani, the film opened to mixed reviews. Now, the film’s director, S Shankar, has opened up about the film’s reception. He said that he wasn’t entirely satisfied with how the film turned out. Speaking to Behindwoods TV, Shankar said in Tamil, “No filmmaker is ever satisfied with their film. I definitely feel like the film could have done better. There were so many good scenes, but they were trimmed, due to which we missed a lot of good things. I can’t put every scene in a three-hour film.”

He added, “The total duration of the film had gone up to five hours. It was like carving a statue. If you want to carve a good statue, it is better if it is made of stone.”

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Ahead of the movie’s release on January 10, the music label Saregama took to its official X handle to reveal that a whopping Rs 75 crore was spent on just four songs in the film: “Jaragandi,” “Dhop,” “Naanaa Hyraanan” and “Raa Macha Macha.” Explaining the expenses, Saregama revealed about 600 dancers were used in the song Jaragandi, which was shot for over 13 days on a massive 70-foot village set. Other songs used 1000 dancers and foreign locations.

Shankar denied that such an amount was spent on the four songs. He said, “It is not true. People have even been saying our film has increased its revenue by four times.” Before Game Changer, Shankar directed the similarly disappointing Indian 2, starring Kamal Haasan.