Aamir Khan apologises as ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ tanks
MUMBAI: Despite high expectations, Thugs Of Hindostan starring Aamir Khan has tanked so spectacularly that he has had to issue an apology to fans.
Khan who was attending the award ceremony of India’s Storytellers Script Contest, said that they tried their level best, but apologised to those viewers who were left disappointed. “I would like to take full responsibility for that. You can be sure that we tried our level best. There are people who have liked the film a lot and we would like to thank them. We are happy that they liked the film but that’s a minority. Majority of the people did not like the film and we are aware of the fact. So there is no doubt that we did go wrong. I want to apologise to the viewers who came to watch my film in the theatres as I was not able to entertain them despite trying my best. But those who came with so many expectations did not enjoy the film and I am feeling very bad about it.”
On why it had tanked, Khan replied, “I am not very comfortable talking about these things in public. My film is like my child. So failure is also mine.”
In China, the film had also tanked over the weekend.
According to Chinese movie ticketing platform Maoyan, the movie is estimated to get in only 96.1 million yuan, possibly the worst of Aamir Khan’s movie performance in China. His movie is competing against Hollywood movies Aquaman and Spider- Man: Into the Spider- Verse and Chinese movies Kill Mobile and Master Z: The IP Man Legacy.
Due to its disappointing performance in India, Khan had hoped that his large number of followers in China, who nicknamed him Mi Shu or Uncle Mi, would pull through.
Although making an all-time record on its opening day with US$7.83 million nett, the movie witnessed a significant slump due to its poor reputation, only grabbing US$30 million in the Indian market.
The Chinese market has been seen as a chance to recover the movie’s huge budget of US$47 million, the most expensive Bollywood movie. Making full use of his influence in China, he not only produced a special Chinese edition but also started his Chinese tour almost two weeks before the movie’s premiere.
Khan had visited a number of key Chinese cities including Guangzhou, Xi’an, Nanjing and Shanghai. He even spent Christmas Eve with Chinese moviegoers for the movie’s Chinese premiere. He used various ways from taking selfies with fans to showing his Chinese handicrafts to please Chinese audiences.
However, on Chinese movie sites Douban and Mtime, it only got 6.2 and 6.6 out of 10, the lowest rating among all of Uncle Mi’s movies. Some users on the sites who gave out one star of five claimed that it was a “waste of time to watch this movie”, “such a bad movie that even Indians don’t like it, how can you expect the Chinese to love it” and “knockoff version of Pirates of the Caribbean.”
It is no better on the international social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which are full of criticism toward the weak storyline and poor directing.
“Hope my Chinese friends read reviews of the movie before watching it. It is a disaster. Don’t waste your valuable (money). It’s not worth it,” tweeted user Vyshak Vitobha.
According to many Chinese movie critics, the failure of the movie in the Chinese market didn’t come from nowhere. “People are kind of tired of Indian movies in China, which have already seen nine movies this year,” a movie critic who wanted to remain anonymous said. “He (Aamir Khan) couldn’t save the fate of such a bad movie with his fame. It is hard for Chinese audiences to echo on some plots in the movie due to lack of the knowledge of Indian history. Besides, the bad reputation in India has more or less brought some influences to Chinese audiences.”
According to Indian media reports, Khan had added, removed and re-ordered a number of scenes to meet Chinese audiences’ taste with a “more compact, straightforward plot.” The Indian mainstream movie tells a story of how Indian bandits known as Thugs fight against the occupying British East India Company.
Besides, in the 120-minute version, 44 minutes shorter than the Indian version, Khan’s character sees more screen time instead of the original balanced screen time of the three main characters.
But Chinese audiences didn’t buy these changes. “The actor has never been the decisive answer behind a movie. And you are not Depp,” scoffed a Douban user with the nickname Simon in the Desert.