Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha opened up on the massive flop that was Shah Rukh Khan’s 2011 film Ra.One. The film, which was heavy on VFX and something that Bollywood had not witnessed until then, failed to impress the audience and even SRK’s charm and star power could not save it. Sinha, who had directed Ra.One, has now declared that it was a “bad film” and that was the sole reason it did not work.
Sinha told Lallantop that he “lost control of the film”. “Ra.One was a bad film, that’s why it didn’t perform well. The script was bad. The editing was bad. I would correct a lot of the film, except for the music and the VFX. I still believe the core story was good, but the film’s ambition to appeal to everyone, and every section of the audience, proved to be detrimental,” he said.
He stated that budget was never an issue with SRK and that the actor made sure to get whatever resources the team demanded. “I was spending 18 hours a day with Shah Rukh Khan. There was an Italian cameraman, and an American VFX supervisor, and all of them knew more cinema than me. I was overwhelmed by the resources,” Sinha admitted.
The Anek filmmaker also claimed that certain people in the film industry wanted SRK to fail. “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,” he averred.
He added that when SRK conceded that Ra.One had flopped at the box office, it was a heartbreaking moment for the filmmaker. “I betrayed the film, and his trust on me. I couldn’t deliver a film that he could be proud of,” he stated.
Ra.One also starred Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Rampal, and it was mounted on a budget of Rs 130 crore with one-of-a-kind VFX.
