Lal Salaam Went Out Control After Rajinikanth...: Director Justifies Film Failure, Angers Fans

Aishwarya Rajinikanth recently helmed the film Lal Salaam starring Rajinikanth in a pivotal role. While the movie opened to a decent response, its box office numbers kept declining due to mixed reviews by audiences and critics alike. Aishwarya recently talked about the reception Lal Salaam received in theatres during an interview with Cinema Vikatan.

Aishwarya Rajinikanth says the Lal Salaam went out of control because of Thalaivar

During the interview, Aishwarya Rajinikanth shared that everything spiralled out of control after Rajinikanth came into the film. She said, "Lal Salaam's screenplay, script, edit, content, everything gone out of control after Rajinikanth came into the film."

She further said, "Seems like the addition of Commercial elements, overshadowed the strong content. Also the edit was reshuffled before 2 days prior to release."

Aishwarya continued, "Initially MoideenBhai character was written for 10 mins. But once Rajinikanth came onboard, the character got extended and the story revolves around him."

Aishwarya Rajinikanth talks about Lal Salaam’s feedback

During the same interview, Aishwarya Rajinikanth talked about the criticism and feedback for Lal Salaam and said, "Personally, I am extremely satisfied as a learner and filmmaker. The film is based on true incidents and hence there is no revelation or twists as such in the film. So, when we had the option to do a linear or non-linear pattern, we went in for the latter since the story is straightforward and simple."

She further added, "As a filmmaker, I saw the whole film together and not as first and second half. We thought of treating the first half in a non-linear fashion and make the second half linear which ties all the knots together. But as per the feedback I got, people were confused of the first half and which character to follow. I realised that they watched both the parts separately and that was a big learning. As a filmmaker I understood that audience saw in a different way. I will take both criticism and appreciation equally and happy, I can better myself and that is biggest learning."

Lal Salaam was released on February 9 alongside Lover, which starred Manikandan. While the latter received a better response than Lal Salaam, Rajinikanth's film was quickly dethroned by the Malayalam film Manjummel Boys.