In the world of Indian cinema, superstar Aamir Khan is widely celebrated for his meticulous script selection and a phenomenal track record of delivering critically acclaimed blockbusters like Dangal and Lagaan. However, even the most seasoned veterans experience major professional missteps, and for Aamir, the 2018 period action-adventure film Thugs of Hindostan remains one of the most notable disappointments of his career. Speaking openly during a recent Screen Academy Masterclass held at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai, the actor took a deep dive into what went wrong with the high-budget project. In a surprising revelation, Aamir compared the narrative structure of the film to Ramesh Sippy’s legendary 1975 classic Sholay, while explaining that the final product seen by audiences was a massive deviation from the director’s original vision due to constant compromises made behind the scenes.
Reflecting on his usual filmmaking philosophy, Aamir confessed that he committed a fundamental error by breaking his own golden rule of prioritizing the overall screenplay above his individual role. He explained that when he signed on for a masterpiece like Dangal, it was purely because he fell in love with the collective story, focusing on his character Mahavir Phogat only after ensuring the script was solid. However, Thugs of Hindostan became the lone exception where he let himself get completely blinded by the charm of his character, Firangi. Describing Firangi as an incredibly attractive, highly unreliable, and engagingly selfish character, Aamir admitted he was so fascinated by the individual performance notes that he ignored the fact that the underlying story itself was fairly ordinary and traditional.
Elaborating on the narrative design, the actor pointed out that the core formula of Thugs of Hindostan was essentially identical to the blueprint used in Sholay. He broke down the comparison by explaining that in Sholay, the actual emotional weight belongs to Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur, who seeks vengeance for the brutal elimination of his family, while the characters of Jai and Veeru, played by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, merely enter the frame as heroes who help him achieve that goal. Similarly, in Thugs of Hindostan, the actual story belonged to Fatima Sana Shaikh’s character, Zafira, whose family gets wiped out, prompting his own character, Firangi, to step in and assist her. Aamir noted that while the formula itself was historically proven to work, the filmmaking team made a massive mistake by continuously rewriting the script due to ongoing casting challenges, thereby fundamentally altering the story’s core structure.
The actor expressed deep regret over these constant modifications, boldly stating that when audiences watched the film in theatres, they never actually got to see the authentic, superior script that director Vijay Krishna Acharya had originally penned. He remarked that the team should have stood firm on the original screenplay even if they failed to secure their preferred casting choices, acknowledging that making adjustments to fit specific actors ultimately ruined the script’s balance. Aamir candidly revealed that while producer Aditya Chopra and the director were initially very confident in the final edit, he personally knew long before the release that the structure had gone completely wrong and that the movie would bounce badly at the box office. By taking full responsibility for the failure and sharing these structural insights, the veteran actor highlighted the vital lesson that star power can never salvage a compromised script.
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