Khel Khel Mein was the third Akshay Kumar film of the year and also his third consecutive flop, despite a good word of mouth. Post-pandemic, Akshay has delivered 11 releases, out of which 8 films have been flops. It has surprised trade and industry because before the pandemic, Akshay Kumar was delivering back to back hits. Vishek Chauhan, owner of Roopbani Cinema in Purnia, Bihar, made an interesting observation in his tweet. He said, “The biggest beneficiary of the elitist wave of commercial cinema in Bollywood was @akshaykumar and sadly its biggest casualty too..when this niche, urban, slice of life targeted at top tier cities and plaxes started tanking…”
EXCLUSIVE: Exhibitor Vishek Chauhan says Akshay Kumar was the biggest beneficiary as well as causality of elitist cinema; also says that Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan are forced to work with South filmmakers in the absence of mass directors in Bollywood
Vishek Chauhan also gave a detailed explanation behind this tweet, exclusively to Bollywood Hungama, which is as follows:
In Hollywood, there was a phase from the early 90s when Tom Hanks scored with films like Forrest Gump (1994). Will Smith, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey also grew in this era. They were big stars and their films would do a business $100 million.
This phase lasted until 2007-08 and ended with the release of Iron Man (2008). The aforementioned stars then become redundant. Similarly, in Bollywood, a phase started after 3 Idiots (2009) where we started making niche films targeted at multiplexes mushrooming at that time. Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani showed the way that without single-screen support and without the support of tier 2 and tier 3 cities, you can deliver a blockbuster.
Until then, Akshay Kumar was doing mass cinema and comedies like Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), Kambakkht Ishq (2009), etc. Then, he hit a low and his mass films stopped working. This made the Bombay film industry assume that mass films are dead. But the reason for it was that filmmakers galat mass films bana rahe the.
In 2012, Akshay Kumar delivered Rowdy Rathore, which was his biggest hit for a very long time. But then he made a transition with Special 26 (2013). I remember it clashed with ABCD. Until the afternoon shows on the day of release, ABCD was leading. But Special 26 was a good film and it flew on the basis of a strong word of mouth.
Thus began the period when Akshay started doing films like Airlift (2016), Rustom (2016), Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017), etc. Akshay Kumar, thus, transitioned from this mass guy into a complete darling of the multiplexes. He peaked in 2019 with four back-to-back hits – Kesari, Mission Mangal, Housefull 4 and Good Newwz. An elite film like Good Newwz also managed to do a business of Rs. 200 crores.
During the COVID era, this juggernaut broke. It put a halt to this kind of cinema. Aamir Khan also suffered when Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) barely collected Rs. 60 crores. However, Aamir does fewer films and hence, he’s underexposed. If Aamir had also done 4-5 films a year, even he would have suffered like Akshay.
Shah Rukh Khan could not make that transition in the multiplex space. His biggest hit in that era was Chennai Express (2013), a complete mass entertainer. Then SRK tried to break into multiplex cinema with films like Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), Fan (2016), Zero (2018), etc. These films never worked. This is when he decided to make mass films and he scored and how.
Salman Khan took the bait once with Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and went to do Tubelight (2017). He realized this was not a space he wanted to be in and went back to his roots. Hence, his stardom is intact. Even SRK’s stardom remained intact. But Akshay Kumar, the biggest beneficiary of the kind of cinema he was doing, suffered the most.
Akshay earlier was working in 4 films a year and he’s still doing the same. Then, we used to applaud him for giving us multiple movies. Now, his films are adding to the woes as audiences don’t want to watch his films.
Not just Akshay, but a lot of actors like Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao also benefited in that era. Their films did Rs. 100 crores business and now they are not able to do so (with some exceptions). Even Ranveer Singh is feeling the heat. ’83 (2021) tanked while Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023) barely managed to break even.
That was the phase when such niche films would manage to collect Rs. 100-150 crores from the multiplexes of five cities. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities were not given importance – wahan se business aaya toh theek, nahin aaya toh bhi theek. Also, the revenue from OTT platforms and overseas would ensure a profit of nearly Rs. 100 crores at times. Yeh zamana chala gaya.
These 10-12 years changed the DNA of Bollywood. Now we don’t have writers or directors who can make enough mass films. We mostly have people who can make films for multiplexes. All of a sudden, the industry feels the need for mass filmmakers.
With no choice, Bollywood is outsourcing from the South. Aamir Khan has gone down South for shopping. Shah Rukh Khan has already shown them the way (with Atlee’s Jawan). Salman Khan is working with a South director (A R Murugadoss in Sikandar). Varun Dhawan is also working with a South director and producer (with Baby John, produced by Atlee and directed by Kalees). Ranveer Singh tried but sadly, it didn’t materialize (with Hanuman director Prasanth Varma). Ranbir Kapoor delivered the biggest hit of his career, Animal, thanks to Sandeep Vanga Reddy.
Also Read: Trade experts feel that Stree 2 would open at Rs. 35-40 crores while Vedaa and Khel Khel Mein would open in single digits
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