Actor Akshay Kumar opened up about his latest films which failed to bring the audience to the theatres. His last three films—Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj and now Raksha Bandhan have performed poorly at the ticket windows. Reacting to it, Akshay during the trailer launch of his next film Cuttputlli, admitted that he needs to understand the demand of the audience. (Also read: Cuttputlli teaser: Akshay Kumar hunts serial killers in surprise new film)
Akshay said, “Films are not working, it is our fault, my fault. I have to make changes, understand what the audience wants and there is nobody else to be blamed for it but me.” The actor’s latest film Raksha Bandhan was also met with boycott trends on social media.
During the media interaction, when asked if actors are now taking up OTT projects over theatrical release to create a safe space for themselves amid failure at the box office, Akshay added, “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, they give feedback whether they like it or not. So, there’s nothing like creating a safe space, you have to work hard, period.”
Akshay is among the busiest actors with several projects lined up. He had back-to-back releases. He also mentioned at the event, “During the pandemic, many films were made, while some released, many couldn’t be released because theatres were shut, and there were many issues during the lockdown. Hum kaam karte rahein, filmein jamaa hoti rahi. I have four films ready which we couldn’t release in the last two years, if there was no pandemic this wouldn’t be the scenario, there would be at least two to four months gap between my films.”
Akshay will be next seen in Cuttputlli, which will be directly released on the OTT platform, Disney+ Hotstar on September 2. Besides this, he has Ram Setu and the Hindi remake of Suriya’s hit Tamil film Soorarai Pottru.