Aamir Khan compares Thugs of Hindostan to Sholay, explains box office failure: 'It bounced back badly'

Aamir Khan has had a few misses over the years, but the actor, known for his meticulous approach to filmmaking, has never shied away from reflecting on what went wrong. He recently revisited one of the most talked-about misfires of his career, Thugs of Hindostan (2018).

Speaking at the SCREEN Academy Masterclass at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai, the actor talked about film, despite its scale and ambition, lost its way long before it reached audiences. Aamir, who is known for his instinct of putting story above everything else, admitted this was one project where he made an exception, and it 'bounced back badly'.

In his words, the film’s structure reminded him of a classic, but the execution drifted over time. “Thugs of Hindostan has a very normal story. It’s Sholay. In Sholay, you have Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur, who needs to take revenge for his family being wiped out. And two people come in and help him - Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra). Over here, it’s Zafira (Fatima Sana Shaikh) whose family gets wiped out. She needs help, and Firangi (Aamir) comes in.”

What, according to him, changed the final outcome was not the idea itself, but the constant reshaping of it. “For casting reasons, we kept changing the script. I wouldn’t know I’d do a fundamental error, but sab se hota hai (it happens with everyone). We should not have changed the script even if we didn’t get the casting we wanted. So, when you’ve seen Thugs, you haven’t seen the original script that Victor had written because it went through a lot of changes.”

Directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra under Yash Raj Films, Thugs of Hindostan was mounted as a large-scale period action-adventure set during the East India Company era. The film brought together Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ronit Roy and Lloyd Owen.

Despite its star power and massive Rs 300 crore budget, the film struggled to connect with critics and audiences alike, eventually earning around Rs 151 crore net in India and emerging as one of Bollywood’s most high-profile box office disappointments.

In a previous conversation, Aamir had referred to the film as 'an accident happening is slow motion'. He also expressed that he had more hope from his next film, Laal Singh Chaddha, a remake of the Hollywood classic, Forrest Gump. However, that film, too didn't succeed at the box office.

Aamir had explained, "While a number of people have liked Laal Singh Chaddha, I’m also aware that a number of people really didn’t get it. It’d be childish of me to try and believe otherwise because there’s absolutely no way you can kill a film that the audience is loving. So, if it’s not worked, then the audience hasn’t connected with it,” he said.