Siddharth Anand's ‘Fighter’ hit the silver screens on January 25, however, it failed to live upto the expectations on the opening day itself. The film stars Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone in lead roles along with Anil Kapoor, Akshay Oberoi and Karan Singh Grover among others. In almost nine days, the film has now managed to collect around Rs 150 crores at the domestic box office.
Now, in a new interview with Galatta Plus, director Siddharth Anand reacted to the lukewarm response to the film at the box office, and mentioned how ‘Fighter’ is a completely new territory for the Indian audience since 90% of them have not flown in planes.
In an interview with Galatta Plus, Siddharth Anand said, “Fighter is a huge leap. As filmmakers do this in the country, and the kind of genre it is. It's a space that is unexplored, and is absolutely new. It has no reference point for the audience, that means what they are seeing is a little... accha... such big stars, a commercial director, accha ye planes kya kar rahi he (what are these planes doing)? I am like this is my film, I don't know this. If you realize, there is a huge percentage of our country... I would say 90% who have not flown in planes! Who has not been to an airport! So how do you expect them to know what's happening in the air?”
Siddharth Anand is being slammed on social media for his comment about the reason for Fighter's unexpected performance.
Talking about the filmmaker's 2023 blockbuster ‘Pathaan’, a person wrote, “Pathaan was hit because 90% Indians are RAW agents.” Another one wrote, “12th Fail was hit because 90% Indians are twelfth fail??” A third X user commented, “And Dangal was a blockbuster because 130% of Indians are into wrestling.”
In the same interview, Siddharth had added, "This is my dissection. They felt like this was a little alien. How many percent of Indians... I mean this is a variation, for an academic discussion, how many of them have a passport? How many travelled in a plane? You are talking about plane's action. They have not understood what is the exhilaration that they are supposed to feel in the action? There's a certain initial disconnect like 'Mujhe nahi pata ye kya hai (I do not know what is happening)! But once you enter the auditorium, you realise this is such a basic film. It is an emotional kahaani, a very desi story. It appeals to the lowest common denominator as a story. The genre of it is very new and I think that was the initial hesitance."
His previous films ‘War’ and ‘Pathaan’, starring Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan respectively, were huge box office hits.
