‘We Ended Up Spending Rs 200 Cr’: Aamir Khan Admits Mistakes Behind Laal Singh Chaddha’s Failure | Bollywood News

Aamir Khan has admitted that Laal Singh Chaddha’s failure was the result of overconfidence and overspending. “We ended up spending ₹200 crore when it should’ve been under ₹80 crore,” he confessed, adding that a costly deleted scene in China and pandemic delays worsened losses.

Before the 2018 debacle of Thugs of Hindostan, Aamir Khan’s filmography had been virtually bulletproof. Ever since Lagaan in 2001—his debut as a producer—he had not delivered a flop, backing one hit after another: Dil Chahta Hai, Mangal Pandey, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Fanaa, Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, PK, Dangal and Secret Superstar. But when Thugs of Hindostan collapsed at the box office, the streak ended. And matters only worsened with Laal Singh Chaddha (2022).

Now, Aamir Khan has openly admitted that his “overconfidence” was the film’s undoing. Speaking with Komal Nahta on his YouTube channel Game Changers, the actor said, “I have a habit of putting every film I produce through an economic filter. Instead of focusing on how much it can earn, I focus on the fact that the film should not result in any losses. Unfortunately, I didn’t put Laal Singh Chaddha through that filter.”

The Budget Spiral

The actor revealed that the production ballooned to an unsustainable ₹200 crore when it should have cost less than half, “I became a little overconfident with Laal Singh Chaddha because I had delivered too many back-to-back hits. That is where I went wrong. I didn’t do economic capping on the film,” he admitted.

Aamir even acknowledged that he had predicted limited box-office potential. While Dangal had made ₹385 crore in India and over ₹2,000 crore worldwide, he expected Laal Singh Chaddha to only collect around ₹100–120 crore, “When you know your film will earn you ₹120 crore, you can keep your budget up to ₹80 crore, maximum. Ideally, it should have been between ₹50–60 crore. However, we ended up spending ₹200 crore,” he said.

The film eventually earned just ₹133.5 crore worldwide, opening at a modest ₹11 crore in India.

COVID-19 and Costly Missteps

According to Aamir, the pandemic made a bad situation worse, “We were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. We underwent huge losses during that period because I had not stopped my payments. I thought, as a producer, I can’t leave my workers unpaid. That increased our cost,” he explained.

In desperation, he even flew the team abroad to complete filming—only to discover that travel costs added to the waste, “We had shot a huge sequence of him playing table tennis. He goes all the way to China to play the match. That scene didn’t make it to the final edit, so all this wastage added to the cost, and COVID-19 made it worse.”

Why Laal Singh Chaddha Was Never “Mainstream”

Aamir also confessed that from the outset, he knew the story structure didn’t fit a mass-market formula, “When I sat with Advait (Chandan, director) for a discussion on the film, I remember telling him clearly, ‘This is not a mainstream film’. He was surprised. He asked, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘There are three things – its premise was a question, the story doesn’t follow the plot but its character, and its sub-plot lasts longer than the main plot.’ These things made me realise it was not a mainstream film.”

Boney Kapoor Faced Similar Challenges

Aamir’s reflections echo producer Boney Kapoor’s struggles with Maidaan, which saw its budget balloon from ₹120 crore to ₹210 crore during COVID-19.

“Nobody knew that the lockdown will be extended for so many months. I kept the unit here until the last flight of the country was announced. This happened with me about four times. Apart from the pandemic, I also suffered because of a cyclone that wiped out my entire stadium set,” Kapoor told Komal Nahta earlier.

Kapoor revealed that pandemic protocols further inflated costs, “Due to the SOPs, I had to keep at least four ambulances and doctors on set. To avoid infection, I ordered food from Taj for a unit of about 800 people. I also spent in crores for bottled water, which was enough to produce a small-budget film.”