Hrithik Roshan in the film. (courtesy: YouTube)
Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone's Fighter did not perform as expected on the opening days at the box office. Now, the film's director Siddharth Anand acknowledged that the film faced challenges due to its unique genre and the fact that it explored uncharted territory in the Indian film industry. In an interview with Galatta Plus, Siddharth said, “Fighter is a huge leap. As filmmakers do this in the country, and the kind of genre it is. It's a space that is unexplored, and is absolutely new. It has no reference point for the audience, that means what they are seeing is a little... accha... such big stars, a commercial director, accha ye planes kya kar rahi he [what are these planes doing?] I am like is this my film, I don't know this.”
“If you realise, there is a huge percentage of our country...I would say 90% who have not flown in planes! Who have not been to an airport! So how do you expect them to know what's happening in the air?” Siddharth Anand added.
Released on January 25, Fighter crossed the 150-crore mark on Sunday. On day 9, the movie, which revolves around India's airstrike in response to a terrorist attack, earned ₹5.35 crore, according to a Sacnilk report. The total earnings for Fighter now stand at ₹151.85 crore. The film has been jointly backed by Viacom18 Studios and Marflix Pictures.
Before Fighter's theatrical release, Siddharth Anand shared insights about the film in a BTS video dropped by the makers. He said, "The mission was to make a film on the Air Force which they can be proud of and is authentic. Obviously, we could not do any mockups. We used the real planes, real choppers, real bases, and real hangars. Fighter is something which has taken years, an insane amount of prep. (It) has taken hundreds of people, and thousands of storyboards."
He continued: “Apart from that, I wanted the manoeuvres of the plane, what they do, how they train, how they brief, what is the lingo they use.”
In addition to Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone, Fighter stars Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover, and Akshay Oberoi in key roles.