Salman Khan’s latest release, Sikandar, turned out to be a damp squib at the box office. This was Khan’s release after nearly two years. It was expected that Sikandar would roar at the box office on EID. However, from the first day, negative word-of-mouth worked against the film. The 200-crore budgeted movie has only been able to collect 129.95 crore net at the Indian box office.
Bollywood’s renowned actor, and Salman’s close friend, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, has now spoken up on Sikandar’s failure. According to the ace actor, if a maker is unable to capitalize on Salman’s popularity and stardom, then the responsibility of failure should be on the maker’s shoulders and not on Salman.
During an interview with Lallantop Cinema, the 50-year-old actor said that if the director and writer cannot provide a good script, then one can’t blame Salman Khan for the failure. “If Bhai agrees to do a film, then it becomes a big responsibility for the directors because he is serving you his fan base on a platter. They have a huge responsibility. Sirf Bhai pe hi ungli nahi uthani chahiye (one should not point fingers only at Salman). The makers also need to work. If you have got Salman Khan, then it becomes their job to put in the essence and all the other elements into the film.”
Hindustan Times quoted Nawazuddin Siddiqui saying, “He is that personality, a superstar who makes a simple film so big with his presence. He is giving you everything—fan following, madness, and celebration—people come to watch him in theatres. But if the directors and makers don’t work on the script, then we can’t put all the blame on the superstar.”
The Gangs of Wasseypur star also mentioned that Salman’s past films didn’t have extraordinary scripts, but they were huge box-office successes because of his stardom alone. He said that he hasn’t watched Sikandar yet and doesn’t know what the film is about.
As per reports, Sikandar’s biggest disappointment has been its dull script. Director A.R. Murugadoss has been under fire for coming up with a lame story that fails to connect with the audience. However, Salman or Murugadoss hasn’t publicly spoken on the film’s debacle. It has been reported that Khan has asked Bajrangi Bhaijaan writer, V. Vijayendra Prasad, to work on the sequel of the film. Salman also hasn’t announced his next release yet. It would be interesting to see if he will come up with Kick 2 by next year on EID.
