Sikandar Ka Muqaddar producer Shital Bhatia on collaborating with Neeraj Pandey, Bollywood's box office woes | Exclusive

Shital Bhatia and Neeraj Pandey have co-produced critically acclaimed thrillers such as Special 26, Baby, and A Wednesday under their banner Friday Filmworks. While Pandey has directed the films, Bhatia is the driving force behind the business operations of their company. Their next thriller Sikandar Ka Muqaddar drops on Netflix on November 29. Ahead of its release, Shital Bhatia talked to DNA and discussed about the film and the ongoing box office crisis the Hindi film industry is facing.

Sharing how his collaboration with Neeraj Pandey began, Shital said, "It began long time back, way back in 2000. We met each other and kind of clicked together, and decided to produce television together. In 2003, when the era of daily soaps started, we realised we can't do all this. We had no work, so we shut down our television company. We started Friday Filmworks and were forced to do films. It took some time to make our first film, but that's how it all began."

Sikandar Ka Muqaddar stars Jimmy Shergill, Avinash Tiwary, and Tamannaah Bhatia in the lead roles. Shital shared that the success of Khakee: The Bihar Chapter on Netflix drove them to collaborate again with the OTT giant for this film. "The Netflix team approached us and said that they would like to do an Original film. We had a wonderful experience working with them. That's when Neeraj thought about this story. Then, the things started falling in place. We have got a great ensemble with Jimmy, Avinash, Tamannaah, and other actors who play very interesting roles."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Shital Bhatia (@shitalbhatia_official)

Shital Bhatia and Neeraj Pandey's last collaboration Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha released in August this year and was a massive commercial failure. Reflecting on Bollywood's ongoing struggle with box office, the producer stated, "I think the industry is going through a churn. The audiences have an exposure to worldwide content. It's not like that only movies led by stars are working. There's no formula to it. We need to look internally, learn from our mistakes, and simply reinvent ourselves."

The next project of Friday Filmworks is the second installement of Khakee, now titled Khakee: The Bengal Chapter. Shital shared that the series currently in post-production phase and will release on Netflix early next year.

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