Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by Neeraj Pandey, Netflix’s heist thriller film, ‘Sikandar ka Muqaddar’ focuses on a decade-and-a-half-long investigation into a robbery. The film begins with a jewelry exhibition in 2009 where the cops stop a group of robbers, and yet they find a set of diamonds missing from their place. A seasoned detective, Jaswinder Singh, is brought on board to solve the case, and his instinct tells him that a computer engineer, Sikandar Sharma, has something to do with it. As questions are raised on Sikandar’s innocence, who vehemently stands by it, fifteen years pass by before the truth comes to light. The 2024 film takes very dark turns at times, making the audience wonder who the real bad guy is and if there is a touch of reality in what unfolds on the screen.
Sikandar and Jaswinder’s Cat and Mouse Chase is Entirely Fictional
‘Sikandar ka Muqaddar’ is a fictional story conceived by director Neeraj Pandey, who penned the story with Vipul K. Rawal. The director has previously worked in the heist genre with ‘Special 26,’ and it is something that he wanted to return to, but with a twist. He wanted something new to offer to the audience, which is when the idea of a cop and his obsession with proving a man’s guilt came to his mind. When the concept was still in its early stages, he shared it with actors Avinash Tiwary and Jimmy Shergill, both of whom were excited to be a part of the project. While the heist forms the crux of the story, Jaswinder’s obsession and relentless chase of Sikandar is what forms the core of it. The writer-director wanted it to be a character-driven drama where the audience is taken in by the humanity and flaws of the characters rather than the heist itself, which disappears into the background for most of the film.
It was while writing the film that Pandey came up with the title, “Sikandar Ka Muqaddar,” as it fit the themes of the story perfectly. The title also serves as a tribute to Amitabh Bachchan’s 1978 film, ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.’ It is one of the films that Pandey has loved since childhood, and with the similarities between the titles, he wanted to give a nod to the blockbuster. However, when it comes to the story, the two films share no similarities at all, as Pandey came up with the idea independently. The actors revealed that Pandey was working on the story till the very end. When they received the scripts, no climax was added to it because Pandey was still experimenting with how he wanted the story to end.
Avinash Tiwary concluded that perhaps because the story relies so much on the characters, Pandey wanted to see what the actors would bring to the table, which would throw more light on the direction their characters would take. He and Shergill grounded their characters to make them feel more relatable, giving the audience a full spectrum of their intentions and actions. They did not refer to any specific incidents or real-life people as the inspiration to give more depth to their performance, but they knew that the entire story relied on how Jaswinder and Sikandar come off to the audience. Not knowing how the story was going to end also kept them on their toes to explore the different emotions for certain scenes and how to play them off such that the audience always remains in the dark about what is about to happen next. This is what makes the story and characters more compelling, even if they remain entirely made up.
Read More: Sikandar ka Muqaddar Ending, Explained: Will Jaswinder Accept Sikandar’s Offer?
