Salman Khan's Sikandar director says he 'felt handicapped' while shooting the movie

When Sikandar was first announced, it felt like a surefire blockbuster in the making. Directed by AR Murugadoss, the man behind Aamir Khan’s Ghajini, and starring Salman Khan, the film promised a high-octane return to massy action drama. It also marked Khan’s reunion with producer Sajid Nadiadwala after over a decade since their 2014 hit Kick. With a reported budget of Rs 200 crore and a cast that included Rashmika Mandanna, Kajal Aggarwal, Sathyaraj, Sharman Joshi, and others, Sikandar hit theatres on March 30, 2025, during Eid, banking on the festive weekend to fuel its box office numbers.

But instead of becoming the year’s big festival hit, Sikandar turned into one of the biggest disappointments. Despite releasing in IMAX and standard formats across India, the film failed to connect with audiences and critics alike. It was panned for its writing, execution, and direction—ultimately becoming a box office bomb.

Nearly four months after the release, AR Murugadoss has broken his silence on the film’s failure. While promoting his upcoming project Madharaasi, the filmmaker offered a brutally honest explanation: his struggle with the Hindi language. “When we make films in our mother tongue, it gives us strength. We know what is happening here,” Murugadoss said. “When we shift language, we don’t know what the youngsters are enjoying in that language. All we need is a script to believe it.”

He went on to say that while he’s more comfortable working in Tamil or even Telugu cinema, Hindi presents a unique set of challenges. “After we write the script, it’s translated into English. Then it is again translated into Hindi. We can only guess what they are saying, but we are not exactly sure about what is happening,” he explained. “When you make a film in an unknown language and place, it feels like you are handicapped. It is like you don’t have hands.”

Murugadoss believes that a filmmaker’s creative strength comes from being grounded in their own language and culture. And while he has delivered successful Hindi films in the past—like Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty with Akshay Kumar, which earned Rs 180 crore on a Rs 50 crore budget—Sikandar seems to have been a misstep rooted in disconnection from the language and its evolving audience.