Akshay Kumar had the Midas touch with almost every film he did turning into a Rs 100 crore spinner. He was the actor who delivered the first superhit post-pandemic in Sooryavanshi, bolstering his image. However, the thing with luck in the fickle business that’s Bollywood is that it runs out. The actor followed it up with over half a dozen flops including Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Mission Raniganj, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Selfiee, and Ram Setu. He most recently starred in the biopic Sarfira, a remake of the Tamil hit Soorarai Pottru, which emerged as one of his biggest flops in years. The saving grace was an extended cameo in the hit film OMG 2, which he also produced. Will this streak, just like luck, end soon, perhaps with his next release Khel Khel Mein?
At the trailer launch of the movie in Mumbai on Friday, Akshay unequivocally answered that “no matter what people say, I’ll keep working”.
Sharing a story his father told him, Akshay said, “I’ll tell you one thing. I’ll tell you a short story, a story my father had told me in my childhood. It was about a farmer. One day his cow gets lost. So when his cow is lost all the villages come to him and tell him, ‘I’m very sorry that your cow is lost, we are sad.’ The next day his cow came back and 3-4 other cows came with it. So the villagers return and say, ‘You got four cows now!’ After a few months his son was taking the cows out somewhere, he was sitting on one of the cows and fell and twisted his foot. The villagers say, ‘Your son’s foot got twisted, sorry.’ The next day, the king announces that all the kids have to join military training and go for the war. So this farmer’s son couldn’t go because he had injured his leg. So everybody said how lucky he was that his son doesn’t have to go to war when everybody else’s sons have to go.”
He then shared that when his films flop, he receives messages, that sound like condolences, from the fraternity. “What I am trying to say is, jo hota hai acchhe ke liye hi hota hai (whatever happens, happens for the best). I don’t overthink. Four-five films of mine have not worked, I get so many kinds of messages — ‘sorry yaar, fikar mat kar (sorry friend, don’t worry)’. Abey marra nahi hoon main (I am not dead)! It feels like people are sending me obituary messages. One journalist even wrote, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be back’, I called him up and asked why he wrote this? What does ‘back’ mean? Where have I gone? I am here and I’ll keep working,” he shared.
Akshay also said he will keep working despite what people say about him. He said, “Hamesha kaam karte rahunga (I’ll always keep working). Chaahe log kuch bhi bole (it doesn’t matter what people say). In the morning I wake up, exercise, leave for work, and return home. Jo bhi kamata hoon apne dum pe kamata hoon (Whatever I earn, I earn on my own). Kisi ka kuch khaunga nahi main kabhi (I’ll never snatch anything from anyone). I’ll keep on working till they have to shoot me down (to stop me from working).”
Akshay’s Khel Khel Mein also stars Vaani Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, and Ammy Virk, among others. The film is scheduled to be released in cinemas on August 15, clashing with Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor’s Street 2 which is directed by Amar Kaushik.
The Khel Khel Mein trailer gives a shot-out to Stree 2; the two films will clash at the box office on Independence Day. Talking about it, Mudassar Aziz said, “We are all a part of the Hindi film industry. That’s the point. A festive weekend is coming up. I don’t view it as us against them. I love Amar Kaushik, I have great respect for the work he does and I want both our films to do well. That’s what I want. I want Hindi films to do well. We have to work hard enough to make our industry prosper. When a festive weekend like that comes, we should ask our audiences to come in (to cinemas).”
About giving a shout-out to Stree 2 in his film’s trailer, he said, “I gave them (makers of Stree 2) a shout-out. If you see the last slate of my trailer, it says, ‘stree aur purush dono dekhe’, it’s my way of calling out to Amar and saying let’s have a great weekend at the box office. Let’s all do well because that’s what Hindi cinema needs.”
