Siddharth Anand reacts to ‘Pathaan’ controversy after success, says ‘Audience is too smart..’

‘Pathaan’ director Siddharth Anand, who is overjoyed with the film’s outstanding performance at the box office, recently opened up about the controversy surrounding his spy thriller. In a recent interview, Siddharth called his film ‘patriotic’ and said that it had nothing offensive.

Talking to Variety, Siddharth said, ‘We’ve had lots of films with big stars that have come out post-pandemic and unfortunately, some of them haven’t worked. But the film has spoken and the film’s intentions have spoken. And the fact that it had nothing offensive, it’s such a patriotic film that it does inspire you.’

‘That’s reached the audience – the audience is too smart to get fooled by fake boycott calls,’ he added.

For the unversed, ‘Pathaan’ made headlines after the release of its first song ‘Besharam Rang’. A section of netizens trolled the song for its choreography, while many politicians were upset with the outfits in the song, including Deepika Padukone’s saffron bikini.

During the first media interaction following ‘Pathaan’ box office success, Shah Rukh Khan had touched upon the boycott calls his film faced ahead of its release, and said, ‘Sabka maksad ek hi hota hai (Everyone has one motive). We should spread happiness, brotherhood, love, kindness, even when I'm playing a bad guy like [in] Darr. Even if I'm playing a Baazigar, even if John is being bad in a film. None of us are bad. We are all playing characters to make you happy. If we say things in the film, none of them are meant to hurt any sentiment or anybody. It is just entertainment.’

‘We love each other, we joke with each other. We have fun with each other. Fun, entertainment should be left at that. Don't take it more seriously. We all are one. All of us are loving each other and trying to make that love spread just to tell you in a very simple manner... this is Deepika Padukone, yeh Amar hain. Main Shah Rukh Khan hoon, main Akbar hoon. Yeh John hain, yeh Anthony hain. And this is what makes cinema,’ he added.

‘Pathaan’ released worldwide on January 25. The film has earned ₹296 crore in Hindi in six days and it is predicted to cross the ₹300 crore mark on Wednesday.

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