Sikandar (2025 film)

Sikandar is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The film stars Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, Sathyaraj, Kajal Aggarwal, Sharman Joshi, Prateik Babbar, Kishore, Jatin Sarna and Sanjay Kapoor. In the film, Raja Sanjay "Sikandar" Rajkot (Khan) is hunted by a politician seeking revenge for a family tragedy.

Marking the reunion of Khan and Nadiadwala after Kick (2014), the film was officially announced in April 2024, with principal photography commencing the following June. It was predominantly shot in Mumbai, while a sporadic schedules was held at Hyderabad, before being wrapped by March 2025. The film has songs composed by Pritam, background score composed by Santhosh Narayanan, cinematography handled by Tirru and editing by Vivek Harshan. With an estimated production budget of ₹200 crore, it is one of the most expensive Indian films of all time.

Sikandar was released in India on 30 March 2025, in standard and IMAX formats, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr. The film has grossed over ₹200 crore and received negative reviews from critics and audiences alike for its story, direction, and music. It was a box-office bomb, grossing ₹174 crore worldwide.

Plot

Sanjay Rajkot, the king of Rajkot, Gujarat, is known to the people as "Sikandar." He is married to Saisri, a painter, who is referred to as Rani Saidha.

One day, during a flight, Arjun, the son of Minister Rakesh Pradhan, encounters Monica, a former pornographic film actress who has since married and has a son. Arjun threatens to show her past videos to her son in exchange for sex. However, Sanjay, who is also on the flight, intervenes, engaging in a fistfight with Arjun and his bouncers. He ultimately forces Arjun to apologize to Monica. The next day, Minister Rakesh hires Inspector Prakash to arrest Sanjay for attacking his son, personally bribing him for the job. Prakash arrives at Sanjay's mansion in Rajkot, only to find that he is not there. Saisri informs him that Sanjay has already gone to the police station. When Prakash reaches the station, he finds Sanjay there but with his senior officers, who order Prakash to let him go.

Saisri feels that Sanjay is always distant from her. She often notices him forgetting their wedding anniversary and her birthday. One day, she discovers that she is pregnant and tries to share the news with Sanjay. However, at the same time, his quarry manager sells 40 kilos of explosives, which are threatened to be used at a site. This forces Sanjay to rush there to stop the attack. Unbeknownst to him, Saisri follows him to the site, where she gets caught in a bomb blast and is severely wounded. She is rushed to the hospital but succumbs to her injuries before she can tell Sanjay about her pregnancy. Prior to her death, she had signed up for organ donation, and her lungs, eyes, and heart are transplanted into patients in Mumbai.

Upon learning that her organs were used in surgeries there, Sanjay sets out to find the recipients. He soon discovers that her lungs were donated to Kamar, an orphaned child from Dharavi, Mumbai, her eyes to Vaidehi Ranga, and her heart to Nisha.

Sanjay first encounters Kamar and learns that he suffers from lung disease due to the severe pollution in his area. The pollution is caused by Virat Bakshi, a businessman, who has bought several acres of land to build a mall. However, in an attempt to force the remaining residents to vacate, he uses the land he owns as a dumping ground for garbage, worsening the living conditions. Next, Sanjay meets Vaidehi and discovers that she lives with her husband, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. She runs a vadam shop, but her business has stopped receiving orders. She believes her strict father-in-law is the reason, as he holds the belief that women should not work. Finally, Sanjay meets Nisha, who is in the hospital because her donated heart has started to fail. Determined to save her, Sanjay arranges for a doctor from Dubai to guide the local doctors through a video call, which helps to stabilize her condition. He later learns that Nisha was born with a heart condition, which worsened after her ex-boyfriend, Kapil, callously informed her that he was getting married, which caused her immense emotional distress.

Cast

Production

Development

In February 2024, it was reported that Salman Khan and Sajid Nadiadwala would begin production on a film, nearly a decade on from their last collaboration Kick (2014): A.R. Murugadoss was then reported to be the film's director. It marks the first film between Khan and Murugadoss, who initially pitched the lead role of Ghajini (2008) to Khan. Nadiadwala and Murugadoss both recruited Khan for Sikandar.

The film was announced by Khan on his social media platforms on Eid al-Fitr in April 2024, and expressed his excitement about collaborating with Murugadoss and Nadiadwala. The film was scheduled to be filmed soon thereafter across multiple countries, including Portugal and other European countries but was delayed due to Murugadoss' commitments on Madharasi (2025). Murugadoss eventually worked on Sikandar and Madharasi simultaneously until June 2024, although, he completed significant portions of Madharasi before continuing on Sikandar. With an estimated production budget of ₹200 crore, Sikandar is the most expensive film produced by Nadiadwala and one of the most expensive Indian films of all time.

Casting

In May 2024, Rashmika Mandanna was announced as the female lead opposite Khan, marking their first collaboration. Sathyaraj and Prateik Babbar were cast soon thereafter. In September, Sharman Joshi, Kajal Aggarwal and Anjini Dhawan were hired, and one month later, Kishore also joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography commenced on 19 June 2024, with aerial-based action sequences shot in Mumbai. An action sequence between Khan and Babbar was filmed in July, and in August, further action sequences, including gun fights and hand-to-hand action sequences, were shot over a period of 40 days across Mumbai. For these sequences, it was reported that sets worth ₹15 crore were created to resemble Dharavi and Matunga. In September, Khan sustained a rib injury during filming. Filming resumed later that month, with a song involving Khan, Mandanna and 200 background dancers being filmed. However, filming was again halted, due to heavy rains across Mumbai.

Filming was further halted due to security concerns after Khan received death threats from Lawrence Bishnoi, with a shooting also reported near Khan's home. After increasing on-set security, principal photography resumed in November, with filming taking place in Falaknuma Palace. Two songs featuring Qawwali and Holi-style themes were reportedly also filmed. Action sequences involving a train and 350 extras were then filmed on elaborate sets recreating Borivali and Mumbai Suburban. In January 2025, Sikander's final filming period began in Mumbai, with four action sequences shot, reportedly including aircraft, trains, and sets resembling a prison and a hospital. Principal photography concluded on 14 March 2025.

Music

The film's music rights were acquired by Zee Music Company, with the songs being composed by Pritam and the background score being composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The first single, "Zohra Jabeen", was released on 4 March 2025. The second single, "Bam Bam Bhole", was released one week later, and the third single, "Sikandar Naache", was released on 18 March. The fourth single, "Hum Aapke Bina" was released on 28 March 2025. The fifth single, “Taikhaane Mein” was released on 8 April 2025.

Release

Sikandar was theatrically released worldwide on 30 March 2025, in standard and IMAX formats, coinciding with Eid-al-Fitr. The film was released in more than 5,000 screens across India.

Despite the wider release many shows were cancelled due to lack of audience and replaced with other movies including L2: Empuraan and The Diplomat.

Reception

Critical response

Sikandar received negative reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 7% of 14 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.9/10.

Bollywood Hungama gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote " On the whole, Sikandar attempts to deliver a powerful social message and showcases Salman Khan in a role that’s sure to resonate with his fanbase. However, the impact is diluted by a weak script and erratic direction." Tushar Joshi of India Today gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Sikandar is exhausting and a bit dated. But if you want to see Bhaijaan do his thing and don’t expect much, it could be your pick this Eid." Dhaval Roy of The Times of India gave 2/5 stars and wrote "The story and the narrative are the biggest letdown of this larger-than-life movie; even if they are trying to draw in die-hard Salman Khan fans, we wish they had taken the action notches higher. A few standout punches and stunts here and there could have probably salvaged this one."

Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Overall, Sikandar is not the Eidi Salman used to promise to his legion of fans." Saibal Chattarjee of NDTV India gave 2/5 and wrote "Little of what Sikandar cobbles together - the story and screenplay are both by the director - achieves any degree of coherence. It's way too dependent on wild yet unimaginative contrivances that strain credulity." Gautam Batra of Pinkvilla gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Overall, Sikandar fails to deliver what it sets out to and hardly qualifies as mass entertaining cinema. The film has a decent story but due to lack of depth, good music and strong performances, it fails to leave an impression."

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "In ‘Sikandar’, director AR Murugadoss and actor Salman Khan flounder spectacularly, failing to give us anything we haven’t seen before." Shubham Kulkrani of OTTPlay gave 0.5/5 stars and wrote "If Salman Khan reading from a giant board while squeezing his eyes is the level of dedication you crave, go for the AR Murugadoss directorial. Cinephiles deserve better. Fans deserve the best. If this is an Eid Bonanza, fans should demand more."

Box office

Sikandar earned 30.06 crore domestically and ₹45 crore worldwide on its opening day, emerges as Khan's seventh highest opening day grosser. The film surpassed ₹100 crore worldwide on its second day and reached ₹105.18 crore in India within five days. Its global box office collection crossed ₹150 crore in the same period. Pinkvilla reported that the film grossed 150.75 crore worldwide in six days. DNA India reported that the film gross ₹154.35 crore worldwide in the first week and ₹97.47 crore net in India while Pinkvilla stated it ₹89.25 crore.

References

External links

• Sikandar at IMDb
• Sikandar at Bollywood Hungama