How Arrogance Destroyed Filmmaker Sajid Khan, Now ‘Big Boss 16’ Contestant

New Delhi: Sajid Khan’s confirmation as a Big Boss 16 contestant left everyone surprised. He was keeping a low profile after allegations of sexual harassment during the #MeToo movement in 2018. Some actresses, including Saloni Chopra, Rachel White and Mandana Karimi, as well as, journalist Karishma Upadhyay accused him of sexual harassment.

Following this, the Indian Film and Television Directors Association suspended him for a year. Sajid Khan was also dropped from his directorial project Housefull 4, which then Farhad Samji took over. The filmmaker opened up about his career downfall on the reality show. Sajid Khan said that his “success” and arrogance “destroyed” him.

Talking to Bigg Boss 16 host Salman Khan, Sajid Khan revealed that after directing “biggest actors of the industry like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, John Abraham, Mithun da (Chakraborty), Chintu ji (Rishi Kapoor, Daboo ji (Randhir Kapoor), Ritesh Deshmukh and Saif Ali Khan,” he became “arrogant” as his films were doing well. “There’s a saying “failures destroy people.” In my case, success destroyed me,” added the filmmaker.

As per Sajid Khan, when he gave “back-to-back three hits,” the director started believing that he was “infallible and can never make a wrong film.” But that’s when reality hit him – his 2013 film Himmatwala and 2014 comedy-romance Humshakals failed terribly at the box office.

“After giving back-to-back three hits, I became very arrogant. I thought I had become infallible and can never make a wrong film. I started giving out arrogant statements. God slapped me hard and Himmatwala did not do well. I became a little humble but I again got slapped and Humshakals did not work,” Sajid Khan said.

On stepping down as the director for the 2019 film Housefull 4, Sajid Khan added, “After Humshakals did not work, I hid my face from people. After that, I started writingHousefull 4 and directed the film half and till the night I was working on the film and in the morning, I was out of the film. My credit on the film was taken away from me. I just felt this is all God’s way of telling me that you have to become a nicer person.”

In a social media post in October 2018, Sajid Khan had written about “taking the moral responsibility of stepping down” from his directorial post because of the “pressure being put on his family.” Read his tweet here.

At the grand premiere of Bigg Boss 16, Sajid Khan also revealed that he did not get much work and “sat at home for four years.”