After Sikandar’s failure, Salman Khan ropes in another south director?

Salman Khan’s latest release, Sikandar, which hit theaters on Monday, has turned out to be a major box-office disaster. Directed by South filmmaker AR Murugadoss and featuring Rashmika Mandanna and Kajal Aggarwal in key roles, the film failed to impress audiences. Following this setback, Salman is now reportedly in talks with yet another South Indian director—this time, Telugu filmmaker Harish Shankar.
Harish Shankar’s last film was Mr. Bachchan, a Telugu remake of the Bollywood film Raid. However, in the last seven years, he has directed only two films—Gaddalakonda Ganesh (2019), which performed averagely and Mr. Bachchan (2024), which was a massive failure. Despite this, the director is now set to helm a project for Bollywood’s biggest superstar.
Interestingly, Harish Shankar had previously remade Salman Khan’s Dabangg in Telugu as Gabbar Singh, starring Pawan Kalyan. The film became a blockbuster and put Harish among the top league of directors. However, after Gaddalakonda Ganesh, his career graph declined, forcing him to take on another remake (Mr. Bachchan), which also failed to revive his fortunes.
Sources suggest that Salman Khan was impressed with how Harish handled Gabbar Singh and that could be a key reason for offering him this new project. If everything falls into place, a leading Telugu production house is expected to bankroll this Hindi venture, with an official announcement likely to come soon.