Siddharth Anand Breaks Silence On Fighter Box Office Failure, Reveals What Went Wrong

Siddharth Anand recently spoke about his film Fighter and its box-office failure. Fighter, starring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles was one of the much-anticipated films of 2024. Being promoted as India's first aerial action, makers had high hopes for Fighter. However, upon its release on January 25, the film which opened to ₹22.5 crores on day 1, crashed by 70% on the first Monday. Now, the filmmaker has finally opened up about the same and blamed his unrealistic expectations for the film's failure. 

Siddharth Anand blames his unrealistic expectations for Fighter's failure

Siddharth Anand in an interview with Galatta Plus opened up about the underwhelming performance of the film at the box office. He said, "Our expectations as makers have become a little unrealistic. I am talking about myself also, having delivered Pathaan just one year ago. We need to keep our expectations in check and align them with the product. Also, it was a working day. Thursday is considered mid-week. For instance, we held a special screening for friends and family on Thursday, and whoever we texted and asked, at least 40% of them asked, ‘Is the show in the evening?’ So, that time, it hit us how will people bunk work or bunk school and come in the morning."

Sidharth Anand blames film's concept for box office failure

In the same interview, he explained, "Another thing is the genre. Fighter is a huge leap for a filmmaker. It’s a space that is unexplored and absolutely new. It has no reference point for the audience. They are like, ‘What are these planes doing?'"

He further added, "There is a huge percentage of our country, I would say, 90 per cent, who have not flown in planes, who have not been to an airport, so how would they know what’s happening in the movie? This is my dissection. They felt this is a little alien. They didn’t understand what kind of exhilaration they are supposed to feel in the air action, so there is a certain initial disconnect. But once you enter the theatre, you realise this is such a basic film."

What more do we know about Fighter?

The film, apart from Hrithik and Deepika also stars Anil Kapoor and Karan Singh Grover in the lead roles. Siddharth Anand believes he will be remembered for Fighter for a long time.