The sheen of Eid was taken away this year as Salman Khan's festival release Tubelight tanked at the box office. Director Kabir Khan has finally opened up on the film’s failure and expressed his disappointment .
“You make a film with a lot of love and conviction and if it doesn’t do well the way it was expected to do, it’s disheartening,” Kabir told Press Trust of India news agency.
The director expressed surprise at the film failing, but could not pin point a reason.
“It’s too early to analyse what went wrong with the film. Maybe people were not able to identify with the character of Salman. But I was happy with what Salman did and even he was playing this part,” he said.
Kabir, who directed Salman in blockbusters like Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), underlined how difficult it is to repeat such success every time. “We can’t expect every film to do business like Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Every film of mine is pitted against Bajrangi Bhaijaan and it is unfair. I am extremely proud of Tubelight,” Kabir said.
Tublelight was sold to the distributors at Rs135 crore, but the film has barely managed to rake in Rs120 crore so far. The film was largely panned by critics, most of whom were critical of Salman's performance.