Ram Charan’s Game Changer Was a 7.5-Hour Mess—Editor Breaks Silence

Editor Shameer Muhammed has revealed his difficult experience working on Game Changer, calling the process with director S. Shankar “extremely unprofessional.” The initial cut of the film reportedly ran over 7.5 hours before being edited down to around 3 hours. Despite high expectations, the film—starring Ram Charan in dual roles alongside Kiara Advani—failed to make an impact at the box office, collecting only around ₹185 crore worldwide against a reported budget of ₹400 crore.

The story for Game Changer was written by filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj, who later confirmed that his original screenplay was heavily altered during production. He noted that both the story and character arcs were changed significantly, moving away from his intended vision of a grounded political drama. Director Shankar also acknowledged compromises during the editing phase, admitting that several powerful scenes were removed.

With its grand scale, ensemble cast, and political themes, the film promised much but struggled due to creative conflicts and a lack of narrative focus. What could have been a strong, issue-driven film ended up as a cautionary tale about the impact of too many voices pulling a story in different directions.