No competition with Shah Rukh Khan: Akshay Kumar

Says there is no sense of rivalry with the Rohit Shetty film, though both release during Eid this year

The news doing the rounds was that Akshay Kumar’s Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Again and Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express would give each other tough competition at the box office this Eid. The films will release on the same day. But Akshay steers clear of any controversy. He says that neither is threatened by the other and that both will get good space and survive together.

Chennai-Express

“I see it positively. Eid is such a big day that it can accommodate both films. There is nothing to think about,” says Akshay at the trailer launch of Once Upon… at Film City on Wednesday.

The trailer has portions on betting in cricket, which gave lead the media to question if it was connected in any way to the present spot-fixing controversy that has shaken the cricketing circles. “He is just a character in a film. Please don’t connect it to anything else. You should see it as a film, nothing else,” says Akshay.

To ensure that everyone at the launch experienced the backdrop of the film, the makers had the trailer launch on a huge set that comprised a police station, cinema hall and a three-storey residential building amid shops. A restaurant that was also recreated had torn posters of Mother India (1957) and Sunghursh (1968) as upcoming films on the walls.