Can Akshay Kumar deliver a big hit with ‘Gabbar Is Back’?

Most Akshay Kumar films in the last few years have grossed just about enough to recover costs, but no film has gone on to be runaway hits at the box office. His last solo-film that did well enough to earn distributors a lot of money was Rowdy Rathore, which released way back in 2012.

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A quick look at the box office collections and verdicts of Akshay’s last few films.

As you can see from the table above, Rowdy Rathore was one of the biggest hits of Akshay Kumar’s career. That film was produced by the Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shabini Khan, who have also produced his latest film ‘Gabbar Is Back’. Interestingly, the similarities don’t end there. The genre of both ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and ‘Gabbar Is Back’ is similar (masala entertainer), both were remakes of South Indian blockbusters and both films feature Kareena Kapoor Khan in a special appearance!

It remains to be seen if ‘Gabbar Is Back’ can recreate the magic of ‘Rowdy Rathore’. The industry is going through its leanest patch in decades and ‘Gabbar Is Back’ will be the first film to release this year that features a established superstar and also has a universally appealing genre. The success of the film will be important for Akshay Kumar, the industry and also for single-screens in smaller towns. More so because no film in 2015 has done well at single-screens.