When will Akshay Kumar’s underperforming phase at the box office end? That’s a question Kumar fans must be asking themselves once again. Before its release, it seemed National Award-winning director Sudha Kongara’s drama Sarfira, Kumar’s latest film, would become a commercial success. The post-release reality tells a different story.
Adapted from GR Gopanath’s memoir Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, Sarfira tells the story of a man from a village in Maharashtra (Kumar) who sets out to start a low-cost airline for the masses. Released on July 12, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Although Kumar’s performance has been appreciated, the film has been crawling at a snail’s pace at the box office. The actor, who has experienced several setbacks, must look forward to his upcoming films with the expectation of returning to the top bracket of stars in terms of commercial performance.
The first half of 2024 ended a couple of weeks ago. Until now, no Bollywood film has emulated the success of films released in the corresponding period of 2023 such as Siddharth Anand’s big-budget action thriller Pathaan that crossed the Rs 1,000 crore mark and Sudipto Sen’s polarizing small-budget drama The Kerala Story, which performed brilliantly when judged in the context of its reported budget of Rs 10-15 crore.
However, the success of small-budget films like Aditya Suhas Jambhale’s political action thriller Article 370 and Aditya Sarpotdar’s supernatural comedy horror film Munjya this year has once again proved that films with appealing ideas and without stars can bring good news for the industry. The disappointing performance of Siddharth Anand’s aerial action film Fighter shows that a good movie headlined by a superstar as charming as Hrithik Roshan can surprise the industry with its commercial outcome. The failure of a hyped big-budget film like Ali Abbas Zafar’s sci-fi action film Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, also starring Kumar alongside Tiger Shroff, is a reminder that an action film needs the right combination of spices to attract viewers to the theatres. The first half of 2024, in short, has conveyed the age-old message that many more failures than successes will always be the highlight of the Big Bollywood Story.
That Kumar is a prolific star is common knowledge. Because he finishes his films quickly, he has had several releases after Sooryavanshi, the Rohit Shetty-helmed action drama that was theatrically released on November 5, 2021. The success of Sooryavanshi breathed life into the exhibition sector for Hindi films, which had suffered immensely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film’s commercial performance made an emphatic statement of Kumar’s stardom. Ironically, however, it also happens to be the last successful film in which he has played the male lead.
The long list of Kumar’s failures after Sooryavanshi is a disappointing fact for his fans. 2022 made for depressing reading, with projects like Farhad Samji’s action comedy Bachchhan Pandey, Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s historical drama Samrat Prithviraj, Abhishek Sharma’s action-adventure film Ram Setu and Aanand L Rai’s comedy-drama Raksha Bandhan sinking without a trace. Aanand L Rai’s 2021 Disney + Hotstar romantic fantasy Atrangi Re in in which Kumar had an extended special appearance and Ranjit M Tewari’s 2022 crime thriller Cuttputlli with him in the central role that also released on Disney+ Hotstar weren’t impressive either, although they did not get assessed because of their performance at the box-office.
The star has had five releases after 2022, but the only one that has managed to get the desired box-office numbers is Amit Rai’s comedy-drama OMG 2 (2023). Kumar’s performance made an impact, but he had an extended special appearance in the film whose highlight was Pankaj Tripathi’s performance in the main role. He was good enough in Raj Mehta’s comedy-drama Selfiee (2023), but the film was a box-office bomb. Tinu Suresh Desai’s disaster drama Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue (2023) was positively reviewed by several critics, but it ended up being an addition to Kumar’s list of failures. Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024), an expensive project, was widely viewed as a film that could revive his career. But, the film’s failure showed that every star-studded big-budget action spectacle won’t become a hit. With Sarfira’s disappointing performance, Kumar’s number of recent failures has increased.
Nobody can predict which film will work and which film will not. Also, every successful film is not a good film. What Kumar does have is several promising releases in the coming months, such as Mudassar Aziz’s comedy Khel Khel Mein, Ahmed Khan’s ensemble cast comedy Welcome To The Jungle, Abhishek Anil Kapur and Sandeep Kewlani’s action thriller Sky Force, Tarun Mansukhani’s ensemble cast comedy Housefull 5 and Subhash Kapoor’s black comedy film Jolly LLB 3. Three of them — Welcome To The Jungle, Housefull 5 and Jolly LLB 3 — have successful prequels. A few good weekends for his upcoming films will be a blessing for the actor, who needs some hits to forget his long series of failures.
The writer, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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