Vicky Kaushal On ‘Sam Bahadur’-’Animal’ Box Office Clash: With Sam, We Knew It Was A Test Match, It Was Not A Masala Film

Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Sam Bahadur’ and Ranbir Kapoor’s ‘Animal’ were one of the biggest box office clashes of last year. Both the films hit the theatres on the same day — December 1. While ‘Sam Bahadur’ was a biographical drama on the life of India’s first Field Marshal, Sam Manekshaw, Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’ was an action entertainer, which turned out to generate controversy as well. 

Recently, during a chat with The Week Magazine, Vicky recalled the clash between his film and ‘Animal’, and mentioned how the team of ‘Sam Bahadur’ was aware from the start that it is a “test match.” He shared, “With Sam, we always knew it was a Test match; we knew it was not the quintessential masala film that Animal was ― it had the shock value and one knew it would create waves at the box office (sic).”

Vicky, however, mentioned that the team of ‘Sam Bahadur’, helmed by Meghna Gulzar, was sure of the film’s ability to resonate with audiences, and for them, a film’s success is also determined by the way it connects with the audience. “If it would not click with people, it would not do well no matter when it was released. People started talking about it more and more as the weeks went by (sic),” he added.

The actor further shared that discussions around ‘Sam Bahadur’ generated buzz even in January, and it kept growing. Vicky said, “We saw that through January, Sam shows kept going on, and that gives me tremendous happiness (sic).” 

Work wise, Vicky has completed a decade in Bollywood. When questioned if he finally thinks that he has attained stardom, he said that the “line between popularity and stardom is blurring,” adding, “Now the most popular is the star. In actuality, a star is someone who is the reason people watch the film for, irrespective of whether it is good or bad. I do not 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.”

According to industry tracker Sacnilk, ‘Sam Bahadur’ collected Rs 130.30 crore worldwide, while ‘Animal’ raked in Rs 915 crore globally. Both Ranbir and Vicky have worked together on ‘Sanju’, and Ranbir did a cameo appearance in Vicky’s Netflix film ‘Love Per Square Foot’