Akshay Kumar to pay compensation for not promoting Joker?

Must Akshay Kumar cough up the money lost on Joker since he did not promote it? It’s an ethic thing, say experts. Akshay Kumar did not promote Joker due to reported differences with maker Shirish Kunder and...

Akshay Kumar did not promote Joker due to reported differences with maker Shirish Kunder, and as a result, the film ended up quite the clown at the box office. This even led to distributors demanding a compensation for their losses from Akshay, claiming that had he been a part of the promotions, the film’s business would’ve gone up. Film experts say it’s a given ethic on an actor’s part to do all he can to build the anticipation around his film, but he alone cannot be blamed for a flop.

“Once an actor takes up a project, he should not abandon it. Good ethics is good business. One should honour his/her commitment to the project and should not desert others. Having said that, I would say that it is all about morality and you can’t force any one. Moreover, an unwilling actor will do more harm than good to a project during promotions,” says filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt.

Filmmaker Vinod Bachchan feels that actors are the king, and a filmmaker can’t do much if an actor does not promote a film. “There has to be a reason if an actor decides not to promote the film. Agar koi actor decide karta hai ki nahi promote karega film, toh producer kya kar sakta hai? Who follows rules in Bollywood?” Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, “I know Akshay for long and he is very professional. So I’m sure there has to be something major to put him off. Fixing the reason behind an actor backing out is more important than putting him in the dock.”

Rajini paid up for losses. Should Akki do it, too?

South Superstar Rajinikanth had agreed to pay back to theatres 33% of the amount for which his 2008 release Kuselan was sold in the Tamil Nadu territory. The film had flopped bad. He also repaid distributors the money after another film featuring him — Baba — which released in 2002, flopped.

For any project, it is unfortunate that the lead actor does not promote it

Aneez Bazmee, filmmaker

Fixing the reason behind an actor backing out is more important than putting him in the dock

Taran Adarsh, trade analyst

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MORE ON JOKER

Akshay Kumar abandons Joker's promotions
Akshay Kumar seems to have abandoned Shirish Kunder’s fantasy film, Joker. The lead actor and co-producer of the film is nowhere to be seen at the film’s promotions. Only Sonakshi Sinha, who plays the female lead, and Chitrangda Singh, who features in an item number, are present at most events.

Of course, in the past too, lead actors have stayed away from the promotion of their films, but only when they were busy shooting for another film at the time. But, Akki is very much around, and making other appearances such as at the finale of a children’s dance reality show and for his other film, Oh My God, which is releasing much later.





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A legal notice has been served on the Central Board of Film Certification demanding deletion of the item number.

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"Udit Narayan is singing for Akshay in a romantic song called Jugnu Banke Tu. Udit has given many hits for Akshay specially the romantic songs, so we were keen to rope him in for this song and we are glad that the pair is back together for this song," Kunder hadsaid in a statement.

I don't target 100 crore club: Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar certainly feels that comedy has to be an inherent element in each of his films. Starting off with a 'family comedy' Housefull 2 and then an 'action comedy' Rowdy Rathore, both of which also facilitated an entry for him in the 100 crore club, he is now jumping genres with 'sci-fi comedy' Joker. Moreover, the promos have pretty much indicated that this is a new world that Shirish Kunder has created with the film. One can well expect a different experience for Akshay to be finding himself in this world.

Akshay Kumar to redub for Joker

Shirish Kunder's upcoming film Joker starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha will be redubbed. However, the makers of the film will only redo the sequences which feature Akshay referring certain Indian states in the film. The reason behind this is that since the film is said to be based in a fictional village in India, there cannot be any reference to existing Indian states, namely Rajasthan, MP and UP.

Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in a still from Joker

(With additional inputs from Agencies)

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