Director Siddharth Anand is a relieved man today. The director has finally wrapped up the Spain schedule of Pathaan, his espionage thriller starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham. The foreign schedule was in the pipeline since last October, but had to be deferred due to several unforeseen reasons — from Aryan Khan’s drugs-on-cruise case to the third wave of the pandemic.

“The Spain schedule has turned out beyond what we had envisaged. This film commands a massive scale, and I’m happy with what we have achieved. The fact that we could finally pull off such a schedule without any hassle is a huge feat for the production,” says the director.

As reported by mid-day last week (When in Spain, do the flamenco, March 25), the team shot a song in Mallorca, followed by a dance number in Jerez de la Frontera. Considering that the 2023 release marks Khan’s return to the big screen after over four years, the director is leaving no stone unturned to make it worth the wait.

“We intend to make it the biggest event film of India. I strive to make every film a bigger experience for the audience than my last film. It’s my personal ambition to make Pathaan on par with any film made in the world,” he adds.