Despite considerable anticipation, the Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone-starrer Fighter did not achieve the expected box office success. While the film became a hit and led the charts as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2024 for seven months, until Stree 2 dethroned it, Fighter’s lifetime earnings were modest compared to most recent blockbusters. This outcome was particularly disappointing for director Siddharth Anand, who had just come off the monumental success of Pathaan (2023), featuring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, which grossed over Rs 1,000 crore worldwide.

Meanwhile, Anand then attributed Fighter’s underwhelming performance to the audience’s unfamiliarity with its setting, which sparked criticism and ridicule. He had said that most Indians have never been inside an airplane and thus did not understand the airborne action sequences. Many pointed out that films with fictional or fantastical elements have also succeeded at the box office.

Recently, Siddharth clarified his earlier remarks and discussed the elements he might have excluded from Fighter. He noted that while he wouldn’t change Pathaan in any way, the director stated that Fighter is his finest work to date. “It’s my most evolved and honest work. It had everything commercial too. However, I think I won’t do those beach songs anymore. I would try and stay honest and true to the genre. And also be very honest in its treatment. Otherwise, I still stand by my opinion that it’s my finest film with great performances and the best VFX. I would probably not have had the beach songs. Nonetheless, ‘Sher Khul Gaye’ still works since it’s set in the academy when they are celebrating a great event. It’s actually a leaf out of the Air Force guys’ lives,” he said during a chat with Bollywood Hungama.

Also Read | Saif Ali Khan was made to feel ‘worthless’ by ex-wife Amrita Singh, wasn’t allowed to meet his kids: ‘Insults, abuses thrown at my mother and sister’

In February, Siddharth commented that the film’s aerial actioner concept might have been “alien” to much of the Indian audience, affecting its reception. “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?’ 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,” he told Galatta Plus.

During the recent chat, he clarified that he didn’t mean to imply that people’s lack of experience with air travel made them incapable of understanding a film about fighter jets. “Obviously I didn’t mean that. But a lot of free minds had a lot of free time to make memes. It was taken completely out of context. What I actually meant was, when seeing a film like that (Fighter), I don’t know what the exhilaration is. I can understand when you have guns and cars hitting each other. This was a very true film and you probably may not get the exhilaration that I am supposed to feel in an action film. You are stuck between, ‘is this an action film or a drama?’ I think that translation got lost. I didn’t mean to talk about the statistics. I only meant that they will probably not know what the exhilaration is till they come to the theatre,” he added.

Fighter starred Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone in lead roles.

Click for more updates and latest Bollywood news along with Entertainment updates. Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the world at The Indian Express.