After giving Bollywood a hit film Sooryavanshi in November 2021, Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar has given back-to-back flops at the ticket window. Owner of Gaiety Galaxy theatre Manoj Desai has now criticized the Bollywood actor for delivering consecutive flops.
Manoj Desai hits out at Akshay
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar’s recent flops have sent the makers and exhibitors in distress. The actor, who is known for giving no less than four movies every calendar year, has already delivered three films – Raksha Bandhan, Samrat Prithviraj, and Bachchan Paandey, this year, but, all of them failed to impress the audience and eventually tanked at the box office.
Manoj Desai, a veteran film exhibitor and a well-known critic of film stars has voiced his opinion on Akshay Kumar’s three consecutive flop movies.
In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Manoj Desai stressed the recent flops that Akshay Kumar has delivered at the box office, including Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, and Raksha Bandhan, opining that “the content was wrong, the subject was wrong and he just couldn’t understand what sort of movies were made”. Ponting out Raksha Bandhan in particular, he added that the audience wasn’t one bit satisfied with the content of the Akshay starrer. “Picture banai, kya banai? Kya kar rahe hai?”, he said.
Sharing his thoughts on the disastrous box office result of Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha, Manoj Desai once again said that the public was unsatisfied with its content while also emphasizing that no artist should be making political statements, referencing Aamir’s intolerance remark back in 2015. He felt that this incident also contributed in some way to the failure of Akshay’s Raksha Bandhan. Manoj was quick to add that it was finally the content of both films that played a major part in pulling them down.
“Koi bhi artist ko politics nahi karna chahiye,” Manoj Desai said and further discussed how harmful publicity can affect a film at the ticket windows by giving the example of Ranbir Kapoor’s Mahakal temple controversy ahead of Ayan Mukerji’s film Brahmastra’s release.
Here’s the video:
The actor breaks his silence
After facing a lot of criticism, Akshay Kumar has finally opened up about his successive failures. “If my films are not working, it is our fault, it is my fault. I have to make the changes, I have to understand what the audience wants. I want to make changes, I want to dismantle my way of working and think about what kind of films I should be doing. Nobody else is to be blamed but me,” he said.
The Raksha Bandhan actor also replied to a question where he was asked if releasing a film literally on OTT is safe amid back-to-back failures.
“It is not safe, that also requires people to say if they like the trailer or not. Nothing is safe, it is not our safety net. Even here (on OTT) people are watching, the media is watching it, the critics are watching it, the audience is watching it, and they give feedback whether they like it or not. So, there’s nothing like creating a safe space, you have to work hard, period,” the actor said.
Meanwhile, Akshay’s Cuttputlli was released on Disney+ Hotstar on 2nd September 2022.
