Akshay Kumar speaks up on the poor success rate of Bollywood films

The promotions of Akshay Kumar’s ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ are on the last leg. The film was initially set to lock horns with Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, which was averted later.

So far, 2017 hasn’t seen a great success in terms of Bollywood films. Although there were plenty of releases and some of them even featured prominent A-listers, the box office was never taken by a storm; barring ‘Baahubali 2’. To provide latest reference, ‘Mubarakan’ and ‘Indu Sarkar’ clashed at box office and none is doing great.

In an interview with Firstpost, Akshay was asked about this poor success rate of Hindi films. What he answered, might make many a producers think. (Also Read: Akshay Kumar reveals he was a victim of child abuse)

“Maybe it has got to do with our content which is not right. Also, they are very systematic in the South. They don’t spend more than Rs 2 crore on publicity. They don’t do reality shows or too many press meets. But like us, they too release big films during Diwali and Pongal. They do reserve those dates. It is not threatening for us, but we can see some new things in cinema. Even our films release in the South, and they have never said that it is a threat. It is just that good films work,” he said.

Over the past few years, we saw a rigorous growth on promotions of films. Not just in terms of investment, but producers also go out of their way to bring in new concepts and merge new mediums in the process of promotion. Add to that the hectic city tours, school and college visits, individual events for launching every single content, and more.

But at the end, what can really do wonder is probably a film’s content!

‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ is a satirical take on sanitation system in India. It also stars Bhoomi Pednekar and will hit the theatres on 11th August.

Ranjini Maitra

Journalist. Writer. Reader. Enthu cutlet. Mood-swing machine. Day dreamer. Sandwiched between ‘live life fully’ and ‘lose some weight’. Mantra of life: Love and love more.