‘Sam Bahadur’ was a ‘test match’: Vicky Kaushal

It wouldn’t be wrong to call the release of Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Sam Bahadur’ and Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Animal’ a massive ‘box-office clash’, especially since both films hit the theatres on the same day: December 1, 2023. While Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial film ‘Animal’ was an actioner, ‘Sam Bahadur’ was a biographical drama based on the life of India’s first Field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw.

Recently, Vicky reflected on the clash between his highly anticipated film, which brought to life the story of Manekshaw and ‘Animal’, telling ‘The Week’ magazine that he knew from the start that his film was a ‘test match’.

“With ‘Sam’, we always knew it was a test match. We knew it wasn’t the quintessential masala film that ‘Animal’ was - it had shock value and one knew it would create waves at the box office,” he explained.

Vicky, however, went on to say that the team behind ‘Sam Bahadur’, helmed by Meghna Gulzar, was confident in their film’s ability to resonate with audiences through word-of-mouth promotion. He emphasised that a movie’s success is ultimately determined by its connection with viewers, regardless of its release timing. “If it wouldn’t click with people, it wouldn’t do well no matter when it is released. People started talking about it more and more as the weeks went by,” he added.

He also expressed his delight at the fact that the buzz surrounding the film kept growing and noted that discussions on it continued to increase even in January. He commented, “We saw that through January, ‘Sam’ shows kept going on and that gives me tremendous happiness.”

After completing a decade in Bollywood and delivering hits like ‘Masaan’, ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, ‘Sanju’, ‘Dunki’ and others, when asked if he finally thinks that he has attained stardom, Vicky replied, by saying that the ‘line between popularity and stardom is blurring’.

“Now the most popular is the star. In actuality, a star is someone who is the reason people watch the film, irrespective of whether it’s good or bad. I don’t think I have achieved that till now. If I do a film that, from the outset, people are not sold on, it will not do the numbers. They will wait, especially now that they know the film will come on OTT in seven to eight weeks,” Vicky added.