Akshay Kumar admits The Kashmir Files affected Bachchhan Paandey at the box office: “That film is a storm”

Akshay Kumar’s most recent release Bachchhan Paandey didn’t perform as expected at the box office. Toward the end of week one, the movie had failed to cross even the ₹50 crore mark, a figure a lot of lower than most of Akshay’s recent films. The chief reason for this was the boom The Kashmir Files saw at the same time. In a new interview with Hindustan Times, Akshay himself admitted that The Kashmir Files’ success affected his movie’s performance but added that he was still happy about it.

Speaking about it, Akshay said, “Firstly, let me tell you I am elated with the success that The Kashmir Files has seen. It tells you the power of cinema and that there is no formula of starting budgets and films of a certain way that guarantee success. It proves that the audiences are who we make our films for and when they lap up something it just flies. Yes, I would have liked Bachchhan Paandey to better than what it is doing but not once do I blame the Kashmir files for it. That film is a storm and we came in the eye of it.”

The actor also responded to the allegations that his recent success is largely based on remakes of South Indian films. He said, “That’s not entirely true, I also do original scripts. Among my upcoming films which are original, there’s Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Ram Setu, OMG2, Gorkha to name a few. Yes there are also some remakes but that’s because these are films I’ve watched and loved and I’m excited to bring to our audience as I feel the market for the same hasn’t been tapped. And it’s not a one-way deal, even South Indian films borrow scripts from our industry. In recent times, my own films like Special 26, Oh My God ! etc. have been remade in the south.”