‘I became too secular, film flopped’: Gadar director on why his ‘surefire hit’ failed | Bollywood News
4 min readKochiJun 30, 2026 09:15 PM IST Despite Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo (2004) arriving close on the heels of his Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), which became one of the biggest successes of its era, director Anil Sharma couldn’t recreate the same magic. Although the war film featured a star-studded cast, including Amitabh Bachchan, Bobby Deol, and Akshay Kumar, it underperformed at the box office. Anil Sharma recently commented on Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo’s failure, sharing what he felt led to the outcome. He maintained that the movie failed to resonate with the audience because of its portrayal of the Indian and Pakistani armies working together. The director claimed he crafted the story in this manner in response to previous criticisms that his films were jingoistic, ruing he became ‘too secular’ while making the film that led to its box office failure. Also Read | Salman Khan to leave Galaxy after 52 years, gets approval for new 6-storey home: report The ‘hit idea’ that failed to recreate Gadar’s magic “If I narrated …
