MUMBAI: Indian film-maker Sajid Khan says there was an “unnecessary” bashing after his last outing Humshakals as people were reviewing him and not his movie. The 2014 comedy was his second movie in a row which failed at the box office after Himmatwala.

“After Humshakals, the Sajid Khan bashing which followed, that was a little unnecessary. Genuinely. But I wasn’t like ‘I’ll show everybody’, no, I have made fun of film industry for 20 years on TV so that much is justified,” Khan said in an interview.

“For 20 years I did that — this film is flop, that song is stolen, but I used to do that in jest. Humshakals wasn’t that big a flop. It did a business of 65 crore… With me, people were reviewing me and not my films, which is okay,” he added.

Contrary to popular notion that he is “arrogant”, Khan said there was a time when he had become very rude. “People think I am arrogant, I don’t think so. I cannot be arrogant at all… I am basically a lower middle class person by heart. I think I was very rude. I was making statements for the sake of making one. ‘100 crore? No, my film will do 200 crore, it can never flop.’”

Khan said it was because of these statements that he had to face lots of criticism. “I realised I have to be politically correct and easy. I was taking myself seriously, I had become rude. Which I don’t think I am anymore,” he said.