The three recent Akshay Kumar films – Selfiee, Raksha Bandhan and Samrat Prithviraj – have all failed to perform at the box office and the actor blames no one but himself for his consecutive flops. Owning up to the failure, Kumar said that it’s time for him to sit back, reflect and change himself according to what the audience needs.
In conversation with Aaj Tak, Kumar exclaimed that it is not a new phase for him where his work isn’t liked by people. “This is not happening to me for the first time. In my career, I have had 16 consecutive flops at a time. There was a time when I had eight films in a row that did not work. Now, I have had three-four films in a row that did not work,” he accepted.
“It happens due to your own fault. The audience has changed, you need to change, and you need to dismantle yourself. You have to start again because the audience demands to see something else,” he said.
Taking things positively, he added, “It is a great alarm. When your films flop in a row, it is an alarm for you that it is time for you to change. I am trying to change, that is all I can do. Do not blame the audience or anyone else. It is my fault, 100%.”
He further went on and said that when an actor selects a script, it’s their responsibility to own up to whatever fate it has. “A film doesn’t flop because the audience didn’t like it. It is because of what you selected. Maybe you have not given the right ingredients in the film,” he concluded.
The last film featuring Kumar that worked well at the box office was Sooryavanshi, the fourth film in Rohit Shetty’s cop universe. Released in 2021, the action-triller saw him working alongside Katrina Kaif. The film also had cameos by Ranveer Singh and Ajay Devgn.
It is pertinent to note that after the pandemic-induced lockdown and restrictions, Kumar’s BellBottom was the first major film to release in theatres. While that didn’t work, Sooryavanshi, another Kumar film, became the first Hindi box office hit post-pandemic.
However, 2022 hasn’t been his year at all in terms of box office numbers. Last year’s Raksha Bandhan and Samrat Prithviraj were box-office duds. His latest outing, Selfiee, released on February 24, made yet another disappointing opening collection of INR 30 million on the first day.
