Anubhav Sinha reacts to Ra One's failure; reveals 'people in the industry wanted Shah Rukh Khan to fall'

In 2011, Shah Rukh Khan and Anubhav Sinha came up with the most expensive film titled Ra One. The superhero film also starred Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Rampal. Today, the audience enjoys watching the film on OTT but back then, it couldn't impress cinema lovers. Despite making it big and high on VFX, Ra One couldn't find its audience and failed at the box office. In a recent interview, director Anubhav Sinha spoke about the film and what went wrong in making it. He even revealed that a lot of people from the industry wanted to see SRK fall as he was finding success in almost every film. Read on...

Anubhav Sinha talks about Ra One and its budget

Ra One might have its flaws but fans today love watching it. A section of people even calls the film 'ahead of its time'. In an interview with The Lallantop, Anubhav Sinha, who has helmed films like Mulk, Anek, and Article 15, revealed that he conceptualized the film in 2005, and started writing it in 2006. He said that he discussed the film with Shah Rukh Khan but nothing was written on record. Things just happened after SRK officially announced the film at a press conference in Berlin without Sinha's knowledge. 

Further, he reacted to the chatter around the movie's budget. It was reported that it is quite expensive but no one was sure about the figure. Sinha said that he never had to worry about the budget because Shah Rukh Khan never discussed money matters. Sinha said, "He is above money. In fact, he doesn’t care about it at all. Of course, I heard it was somewhere between Rs 90-120 crores, but I didn’t know the exact number." He went on to admit that he lost control of the film as he was completely overwhelmed during that time.

How did Akon come on board for Ra One?

During the conversation, the ace director that the crew of Ra One involved an Italian cameraman and an American VFX supervisor, and all of them knew more about cinema than him. He was overwhelmed by the resources. Anubhav added, "He (Shah Rukh Khan) is a very intelligent person. He knew how to impress his decision on you without you feeling bad about it. Of course, I was consulted about everything, including the casting. In fact, even bringing Akon for Chammak Chalo was initiated by Vishal-Shekhar. I called up Shah Rukh and said, ‘Akon chaahiye’ (We need Akon), and all he replied was ‘Let me try…’ and then it is Shah Rukh Khan. He makes things happen.”

He also spoke about the negativity that surrounded the film during its release. He shared, "During the second week of its run, I realised that the film wouldn’t run the way we expected it to. I was depressed. I reached out to Kishore Lulla in London, and he assured me that Shah Rukh Khan and him would make money from the film, even though it wasn’t performing very well. I believe that there were people in the film industry who wanted Shah Rukh Khan to fall. I have been long enough in cinema to understand that kind of a feeling in people. But yeah, when Shah Rukh Khan conceded that the film flopped, it was heartbreaking because I betrayed the film, and his trust on me. I couldn’t deliver a film that he could be proud of."

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