Aamir Khan tried to convince producer Aditya Chopra to make changes to Thugs of Hindostan for 8 months, didn't like the film: ‘But Adi was very confident'

Indian Express

19-06-2025

When Aamir Khan appeared in YRF's big budget film Thugs of Hindostan with Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh, it was promoted as the most anticipated film of the year. Releasing on the festival of Diwali in 2018, it got a massive opening of Rs 50.75 crore, which was the highest opening for a Hindi film until then, but soon after that, the film fell on its face and was rejected by the audience. So much so that Aamir had to take full responsibility for the film's failure in public. Now, Aamir has shared that he was not happy with the film and was well aware that it would get rejected by the audience and he even tried to convince the producer, Aditya Chopra, and director, Vijay Krishna Acharya, for eight months to make changes, but they didn't budge.
Aamir, in a chat shared on Zee Music Company's YouTube channel, shared, 'What happened with Thugs was… I didn't like the film myself. Now, enough years have passed and I really respect Adi (Aditya) and Victor (Vijay) but sometimes, there are creative differences. When the film was made, Adi and Victor really liked it, the way it was made, but I didn't like it at all.'
Aamir added that the film had gone wrong on paper itself and shared, 'I felt that structurally, we went wrong with the writing and I tried to tell them about it but they were confident that the film is good. I tried to convince them for around 8 months but ultimately, they are the director and producer so whatever they decision they took, I accepted it because I have to follow what they are saying.'
ALSO READ | Kesari Chapter 2: Akshay Kumar's courtroom drama accidentally exposes Bollywood's handling of sexual misconduct
He recalled that weeks before the release of the film, he was sleeping like a baby, which was very unlike him as he had a tendency to lose sleep before a major release. When his then wife, Kiran Rao, questioned him about the same, he shared with her, he recalled telling her, 'I said I have no anxiety about this film because I know this won't work and I believe if I don't like it, why should I expect the audience to like it? So when Thugs didn't work, I didn't feel bad because I didn't like it too.'
After the film's failure, Aamir, in a press conference said, 'I take the full responsibility of Thugs not working with the audience. You can be sure that we tried our level best but somewhere we went wrong. There are a few people who liked the film. I would like to thank them. We realise that most of the people did not like the film. I want to apologise to fans that I couldn't entertain them the way they wanted, though we did try our best.'