Director Siddharth Anand on Pathaan being called a ‘pale imitation of Hollywood’: ‘That’s inevitable when you make a film that’s beyond the conventions of Bollywood films’

Starring superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham in lead roles, filmmaker Siddharth Anand’s latest directorial Pathaan (2022) has set the global box office on fire with its collections. Fans are euphoric to see SRK on the silver screen after a long gap of four years.

While millions of fans are busy enjoying the film in cinemas in huge numbers, there are some who are busy comparing Pathaan to a slew of Hollywood franchises such as James Bond, Mission Impossible, Fast and Furious, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Filmmaker Siddharth Anand has finally broken his silence and reacted to those comparing it to Hollywood movies. Terming the comparisons ‘inevitable’ as Pathaan was not a conventional Bollywood film, the filmmaker told Gulf News, “That’s inevitable when you make a film that’s beyond the conventions of Bollywood films. You’re instantly compared to Hollywood, which obviously has better infrastructure, better technology, and huger budgets.”

He further added, “It will always seem like we are trying to imitate that, but our limitations are much more. We also have ambitions, our directors have the ability to mount films, but we are limited by reach because our films are made in one language, which is Hindi. Our revenues are directly proportional to the budgets we can afford.”

Anand continued, “I have to admit, I have not watched more than two MCU films. I am not a fan of that genre. I have seen a couple of them. My son is a huge fan, and he is an Encyclopedia. He briefs me and keeps me up to date. I have to run my scripts and my sequences past him, and he will say, ‘No, dad, this is in that film. No, you can’t do this, this has already been done.’ I am like, ‘What the hell do I do?’ So, I take ideas from him on how to manoeuvre things around. I think I should get on the bandwagon and start watching those films so that there is no overlap.”

Meanwhile, Siddharth Anand is presently busy with his next project Fighter, which stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, and Anil Kapoor in lead roles. The film is due in theatres in 2024.

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