PremiumSaif Ali Khan reflects on Adipurush failure - 'People talk about risks, but...'
Saif Ali Khan opened up about Adipurush and Laal Kaptaan while speaking about embracing failure and moving forward.
Last Updated: 11.57 AM, Feb 08, 2024
Following last year's big-budget mythical epic Adipurush's terrible opening and content-related controversies, most of the team members refuted commenting on the film. Only the film's writer and lyricist, Manoj Muntashir Shukla, addressed the criticism and reception of the film in a public forum. However, in a recent interview, actor Saif Ali Khan briefly discussed the film's failure, almost a year after its theatrical release.
Saif Ali Khan's humble perspective on stardom
Saif refused to acknowledge that he is a star capable of launching any number of projects in an interview with Film Companion. He used his 2019 Western, Laal Kaptaan, to illustrate his point. On its first day of release, the Navdeep Singh-directed film just managed to break the Rs 50 lakh barrier. The actor laughed off by saying that he is not a big star enough to pull anything off.
Being down-to-earth is refreshing, and Saif certainly doesn't want to ever consider himself a star. Being a star is fun, but he would rather not be naive. Even though they're famous, his parents have been down-to-earth and ordinary people. Truthfully, the actor has always felt that there's a lot more to life than that and shared that the point is to not let failure scare them. To paraphrase, Saif said that it was a courageous choice. By addressing Adipurush as an example, the actor mentioned that when one falls flat on their face, it's seldom a risk, but people still talk about them. As part of the strategy, people should also have a couple of those. "Nice try, but bad luck; let's go to the next one" is the way to roll off the dice after feeling awful about themselves.
Comparative insights from Laal Kaptaan filming
While filming Laal Kaptaan, Saif remembered Deepak Dobriyal suggesting that the film could mirror The Revenant due to the rigorous physical demands of shooting in the wilderness and being fully exposed to the elements. For the actor, it was an incredible and draining experience to begin with. In addition, he mentioned that he and his wife, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, spent a couple of months apart emotionally.
Adipurush, which premiered in June of last year, was based on the Ramayana and starred Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, and Saif as Lankesh, respectively. Despite spending an estimated 600 million rupees, the film bombed at the box office and received negative reviews.