Anubhav Sinha opens up on how Bheed, Anek’s box office failure impacted him: ‘You get encouraged not to…'

Anubhav Sinha's recent release IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack has been grabbing headlines since the release of the film. The filmmaker has now opened up on how the box office failure of his last two films, Bheed and Anek impacted him. 

In an interview with Indian Express, Anubhav Sinha opened up on the impact of making a film that underperforms at the box office and said, "It almost discourages you from making more movies. It breaks your heart, it breaks your backbone. You lose confidence. You almost get encouraged not to make a film again. But then something else convinces you enough to do it again and then you look back and say, ‘No, it’s not a big deal, it’s okay.'”

He further recalled giving three back-to-back hits and then two flops and said, "I had three back-to-back hits and then I had two films that didn’t work and those were also strange times and I was making a dark film (Bheed) on Corona tragedy, and in black-and-white, it didn’t work. It’s okay. As long as you are not ashamed of your film, as long as people who participated with you in that film are not ashamed, you take it in your stride. When you read or write history, you turn a page, and you have gone past a decade in the history of filmmaking, so don’t take yourself that seriously.”

Anubhav Sinha also argued that if “You make 10 films, and if you end up making five films that are hit then you are doing rather fine.” Anek starred Ayushmann Khurrana and Bheed starred Bhumi Pednekar and Rajkummar Rao in the lead. However, both films failed to make a mark at the box office. 

IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack starring Vijay Varma, Pankaj Kapur, Dia Mirza, and Naseeruddin Shah, courted controversy after its release on August 29. The show has been accused of ‘whitewashing’ the events leading to the hijack, changing the names of the hijackers. The series opened to mixed to negative reviews from the audience and critics and is available to watch on Netflix. 

The DNA app is now available for download on the Google Play Store. Please download the app and share your feedback with us.