Director AR Murugadoss on why Salman Khan's Sikandar didn't work: 'I couldn’t execute it well'

Salman Khan's Sikandar was one of the highly anticipated movies of the year. Released in March on the festival of Eid, Khan's film failed to live up to expectations. The movie marked Khan's comeback to the big screen, two years after Kisi Ka Bhai Ki Jaan, which was also a box office flop.

Months after the movie tanked at the box office, director AR Murugadoss addressed the movie's failure, saying that he wasn't able to execute the story.

AR Murugadoss explains Sikandar's box office failure

Released on Mar 30, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr, the movie opened with bad reviews, with critics and audience failing to understand the movie, with many calling it Salman's weakest outing. Murugadoss, who has directed Aamir Khan's 2008 blockbuster film, Ghajini, has now opened up about the failure, saying that he was not able to execute the idea of organ trafficking.

In an interview with Velaipechu Voice, he said, “Actually, the base story is very emotional. It’s about a king who doesn’t truly understand his wife. We are all like that, whether it’s with our mother, friend, or wife, we often don’t value relationships. Only when someone leaves us forever do we feel the weight of guilt.''

The director adds, ''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.”

Comparing Sikandar with Ghajini, which was itself a remake of his 2005 movie by the same name. The 2008 movie, Murugadoss’s Bollywood debut, was the first film to cross the Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) mark at the box office.

He said, “I could pull off Ghajini because it was a remake, not an original script. I had already done it before, so I had complete command. With Sikandar, that wasn’t the case.''

The filmmaker also added that despite the failure, he will surely return to Hindi cinema.

''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,” the director said.

In the movie, Salman plays the role of Sanjay Rajkot aka Sikandar, he's the man of principles, and is known as the King of Rajkot. After his wife, Sai Shree (Rashmika Mandanna), is killed, her organs are donated to three different people. Mourning her death, Sikandar goes to Mumbai to meet recipients of his dead wife's organs, and finds himself a target of a politician. Made in a budget of Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion), the movie made Rs 170-177 crore (Rs 1.7 billion approx).

WION’s review of Sikander

In her review of the film, WION’s Shomini Sen wrote that Salman Khan’s film lacked the ‘sheen’. “The first half of the film takes too long to establish the plot asSikandar meanders around Mumbai city looking for the people who have his wife's organs. You almost think it's a story of repentance, but in the second half, when the action begins, the film starts becoming incoherent. By the time the film reaches its climax- with all the key characters gathering in one place- the film has completely lost its plot,” wrote Sen.