Salman Khan has finally responded to Sikandar director AR Murugadoss’ remarks about the actor allegedly showing up late on set. During the latest Weekend Ka Vaar episode of Bigg Boss 19, the actor addressed the controversy surrounding the film’s production and took a few digs at the filmmaker.
When comedian Ravi Gupta asked Salman to name the films he regrets doing, the actor mentioned his 1992 releases, Suryavanshi and Nishchay. However, when asked if there were any recent ones, he said, “I don’t regret doing any film in recent times. People might say Sikandar, but I don’t agree. The plot was very good.”
Salman then hit back at Murugadoss’ comments about his alleged tardiness during Sikandar’s shoot. “I used to arrive on set around 9 PM, and apparently, that created problems. But my ribs were broken at the time,” he said, taking a jab at the director’s criticism. “Recently, another film of his was released where the lead actor used to reach the set by 6 PM,” Salman added, sarcastically referencing Murugadoss’ Tamil film Madharaasi.
The actor didn’t stop there. He went on to call out both Murugadoss and producer Sajid Nadiadwala for distancing themselves from Sikandar after its poor performance. “Initially, the film belonged to Murugadoss and Sajid Nadiadwala. Then Sajid backed out, and Murugadoss, too, walked away and made another film down South,” Salman said.
Taking a playful dig at Madharaasi’s box office run, Salman remarked, “He’s directed a film called Madharaasi. It’s a very big film, and an even bigger blockbuster than Sikandar,” ending his statement with a smile.
Earlier, in an interview with Valaipechu Voice, Murugadoss had opened up about Sikandar’s failure and hinted that working with a major Bollywood star came with challenges. “It’s not easy to shoot with a star. Even day scenes had to be shot at night because he would arrive only by 8 PM. We’re used to shooting early mornings, but that wasn’t possible there,” the filmmaker had said. He added that such schedules affected the rest of the cast, especially the child actors who had to stay awake until 2 AM for certain scenes.
Despite Murugadoss admitting that he “couldn’t execute the emotional story well”, Sikandar, starring Salman Khan as Sanjay Rajkot, a widowed king on a mission to protect those who received organ donations from his late wife, failed to connect with audiences. The film, made on a reported budget of ₹200 crore, collected around ₹185 crore worldwide, as per Sacnilk.