Like Salman, Akshay Kumar should take his films more seriously!

Akshay Kumar is one of the biggest stars in the country, who commands a huge following amongst the masses. In fact, at one point in his career (Welcome, Singh Is King days), his films used to take record openings.

But the opening day numbers of his latest release ‘Baby’ has shocked the trade. The Akshay Kumar film has taken a ‘below average’ start at the box office, which has led to questions being asked about his stardom and whether he still commands the following that he once did.

Baby was always projected as a sleek, action thriller from its promos. While the trailer was well-received, the decision to release it as early as the first week of December backfired big time. To sustain the buzz after the trailer launch, makers of other films release song and dialogue promos every week. In Baby’s case, there were no newer ‘units’, as the film did not have songs. Sources say, the makers were confident about the content of the film and that word-of-mouth would help it grow into a success at the box office. Adding promotional numbers would have created a disconnect with the content and genre of the film. Even the song that was added at the last moment, featuring Esha Gupta, did not do much for the film.

The other reasons why Baby did not take a good enough start could be because Akshay Kumar over-exposes himself and also the fact that he doesn’t take film marketing too seriously. On an average, he has 3 to 4 releases every year which leads to an overkill for the audience. This could be one of the biggest reasons why Baby, promoted as a film from the makers of Special 26, received tremendous reviews from almost every critic and was also touted to be Akshay’s finest performance to date – but the initial did not do justice to its content.

Akshay could have something to learn from Salman Khan here. The superstar also went through a similar, if not worse, phase in his career not too long ago. There was a time when his films released and the multiplex audience simply did not turn up to watch his films in theatre. The turning point for him was when he decided to be more serious about his career and also changed his PR team. Reshma Shetty, Salman Khan’s celebrity manager, the founder and MD of Matrix India Entertainment Consultants is regarded as one of Bollywood’s new iron ladies. She is best known for transforming Salman Khan into a brand that takes his films and fans very seriously.

Akshay Kumar has a great year ahead. From a commercial entertainer (Gabbar) to an action-emotional drama (Brothers). While we continue to hope that ‘Baby’, already touted as an under-performer by the trade, grows over the next few days and eventually crosses the 100 crore mark, we also hope that Akshay takes his upcoming films more seriously.

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77 Comments

  • Indicine I totally agree with you. Akki should do less film (max 2 in a year). He should also be very careful before select a film i.e. banner, heroine, director etc…

    Still he has huge fan following in India.

  • he needs to do only 1 film every year, that’s the only way he can regain his stardom. even if he does 2 films every year, than there is no chance. because when you come up again and again with disappointing product, you lose your fan following without any doubt. and same thing has happened in his case. also not only he has to do 1 film every year, he also has to be extremely choosy about the script selections. if he still does one more entertainment or TMK or even housefull 2, Joker kind of mediocre movies again then he is gone for sure. because audience are really fed up of him. and now he lacks the fan following. he is responsible for his own fall. so it’s high time that he should wake up and only does 1 film at a time.

  • Yes akshay is very much over exposed.. He should do at least 2 movies per year. Otherwise we love his acting and all his recent movies expect ENTERTAINMENT were great..

  • What a bunch of nonsense. Indian audience prefer braindead crap, rather than good movies. Otherwise there would not be a commercial cinema and an “art” cinema.

    Hny, kick, singham, houseful, lst goes on, made money, all were crap.

  • Salman fans like the author have no right to advise Akki. Salman Khan may be a STAR but he is not, and never was, an ACTOR. Whole India knows about the quality of the crap fests churned out by Salman under the disguise of films.

    Akshay should do more films like Holiday and Baby. Baby’s average opening is not due to the content but due to him doing too many films. Akki should restrict himself to 2 films every year and those films must be good quality like Baby and not It’s Entertainment or Kholadi 786.

  • Akki Sir should do whats best for him n thats that.,,, I remember his struggling days n now he is reaping the fruits of his hard work of last decade…. Not his fault producers keep paying him 20cr for per 60cr hit- he should milk them for all they worth….!

  • Oh Come On…..I Am sorry to say but this is a disgrace to Indian Cinema…..Film makers tend to fit everything in a movie Just to make it appealing to the Masses….And in that case they produce a shit product….Indian audience is to be blamed for this…..No offence but a Fantabulos Film like BABY would suffer because of that level of the Masses….I mean if you would see…Multiplex is contributing huge for BABY….But all The B and C Class Centres where Masala films rocks….Are doing nothing…….And due to that Baby isnt performing great…..Though BABY will be a Hit for sure…..But If this continues then There wont be any Innovative approach in Btown….And people like us(In Millions) will always be Waiting for ..Bourne..Sherlock….Bond..Jack Ryan…..and Masala movies will keep doing the trick…..Anywayz BABY is the Best film that came out of Bollywood…And Akshay Kumar is the Best Actor Ever….Huge…My Prediction for BABY-110-115cR….!!

  • @Bhai.. why do you blame the Indian audience? They have also rejected brain dead movies like Action Jackson, Himmatwala and Humshakals.

    If a movie is entertaining it will do well. I think it’s as simple as that. Akshay has been doing crappy films so the family and city audience have decided not to watch his movies. Even my own parents say they dont want to watch a movie as soon as they get to know that it stars Akshay.

    Salman has also been doing average films but audience do not mind watching it once. But when you give movies as unbearable as Chandni Chowk To China, Kambakht Ishq, Blue, Action Replay, Khiladi 786, OUATIMD… and then in between you give one Special 26 and Baby.. people won’t trust you enough to pay thousands at multiplexes.

    That’s the problem with Akshay, I think. Some of his bad films aren’t even good enough to be watched one time, unlike Salman..

  • Noone can become Salman. He is one man army he has personality, attitude, natural acting that make him biggest star of masses.

  • Great article.I still remember the craze of Akki during Singh is King days.He was Srk’s biggest competitor and even in award shows he was winning most of the the biggest entertainer awards previously won by Srk .But after Singh is Kinng he just lost his path.Maybe it was his overconfidence that audiences would watch any movie in which he acts.But I feel he was quite unlucky.He gave flop movies with directors like Priyadarshan and Vipul with whom he had an 100% success ratio.
    But he would have surely learnt his mistake and thisthis year could be his career’s turning point just like 2007 and maybe once if he reclaims his previous positions he would be more careful with his choice of movies

  • Absolute nonsensical article.

    Akshay need not follow north indian Rajinikanth who remakes south indian regional ATBBs.

    BABY can never collect 15+ crores opening if released in January less than 2800 screens on a non-eid non- non-independence day non-diwali non-christmas.

    BABY is also overhyped. It is below SPECIAL 26 imo.

    BABY totally lacks chemistry btw lead actors. Something SPECIAL 26 was high on.

    BABY also has too many Pakistani actors who killed the movies chemistry. The 2nd half scenes even looked below ave. Only pakistani that fit the role was maulana’s character and even he was underdeveloped.

    SPECIAL 26: ***. Excellent chemistry. Scenes between akshay-anupum, akshay-manoj are excellent. Good repeat value.

    BABY: **. Poor chemistry. No repeat value. Watch it only for Akshay’s career best performance.

  • Baby is really nice movie ,Akshay Kumar,Anupam Kher,Niraj Pandey,Rana everbody awesome in their individual role. But the fact is that Indian audience cannot digest quality movies. This is very ridiculous. Indian audience trust the stupid films like Jai Ho, Happy New Year, Bang Bang. The day when films like Baby will take earth-shatting opening, will mark the era of modern Indian cinema.

  • My controversial conversation about The Truth Behind Baby’s trending on Twitter has been banned by the Central Board of comments Certification (indicine team).

    I posted the trailer of my new conversation a couple of days ago but @Indicineteam didn’t approved it and I don’t know why??!!.

    The movie stars Babaji, Nipun, Floppy, Navin, Sss, Aeey, Sambudha, Ajay Rocks, Megha.

    Anyway hit thumps up bottom if you want the movie and hit thumps down if you don’t.

    Thanks.

  • Watched Baby today, here my review.
    First of all its first film of Akki which I seen in theatre since TMK.The film story is about a team baby who is on mission to find the terrorist who are responsible and willing to create terror attacks.It has four member Akki,Rana,Anupam & Tapsi and Lead by Danny.The whole screenplay of the movie run around how they able to catch the culprits.
    Story don’t have anything new to offer and we have seen quite many films based on terrorism but its depend how you shaped up your writing and narration to keep the interest of audience and make them entertain.Baby had given full justice in that case.Screenplay I would say is very good but not outstanding as in first half and some portion in second half it drags specially climax also dragged a bit.Dialogues ate outstanding.Full marks to the writers for punching dialogues as well sarcastic and humorous in some parts.I loved Akki’s wife dialogue “Bas Marna Mat”.
    Performances:-I must admit that I never thought akki is such a fine actor before I watched holiday.And now with Baby he won my heart with his performance.He is the soul of the film and unlike other Neeraj pandey film this time most focus is on Akki and he is fantastic.His dialogues,body language,sincerity and acting is superb.Take a bow akki for this performance but I have to say that I loved his performance in holiday more.
    Danny is fantastic, after a long time we have seen this talented actor in important role with great screen presence. As a leader of team baby he is superb.Anupam kher had come in limelight in latter part of second half and his performance is terrific.He delivered great performance and able to leave his impact whenever he is on screen.Rana Dagubbati is good he don’t have much to do even his dialogues are negligible most of time he remain silent.
    Tapsi Pannu has a cameo but she is very good in that too,she looks beautiful and done justice to her character.Her fight scenes with Sushant Singh were shoot brilliantly and it got thunderous applause from audience.She will remember for those scenes.
    Pakistani Maulana was also good in his role so is shushant rajput. I had only issue with Neeraj pandey that they wasted K K Menon here.He I’d such a fine actor but there is not a much important role of him.
    Direction-Neeraj pandey completed his hatrick with fantastic films back to back with a Wednesday,SPL 26,baby. He is a director to watch out in future.He had directed movie very well,able to engage the audience,open the layer one by one, used Acting caliber of all the actors barring kk Manon even supporting cast was superb.Though it is no great like his earlier work but still very good.Thanks for the Baby Sir.
    In technical department film is first rate,superb BGM,cinematography,editing all were very good.Saudi locations were eye pleasing.
    Scenes which stand out.
    1.Akki first encounter with javed to get the truth from him.
    2. Whole conversation between Akki with Taufiq.
    3. Tapsi encounter with shushant and their fight scenes.
    4. Whole the last 35-40 mins everything was good though climax is stretched.
    5.Akki conversation with Shushant.
    and many more.
    I have watched the film on single screens and I had seen that they loving the film,so despite being avg start I think it will sustain well in coming days,may cross 100 cr a success for sure but deserves Hit status and great collection.
    Thanks You Neeraj-Akki and whole baby team for wonderful experience.
    Religion waale column may him Bold and Capital letters me likhte h “INDIAN”- Team Baby
    4/5 from my side not a classic but brilliant movie nevertheless.
    At last Happy Republic Day all the Indians.

  • Coming back to article, I have said many times he need to do max 2 films a year.Because his class films like omg,spl26,holiday etc followed by utter crap k786,ouatimd,entertainment.Even Main gabbar also looking for same league as it come next after a good movie Baby.It feel sad that a superb movie holiday,baby suffered due to those crap.
    But still I must say in last 4 years akki had given Bollywood substantial films and we should appreciate that too.
    Way to go akki please keep doing great cinema and stay away from craps.

  • I am crazy & biggest fan of Srk…..but Akshay sir is a real gentelman & very good actor……problem is not the type of muvi he is doing but the problem is that he is doing 4movies in a year…..akshay sir should do maximum 2 movies a year

  • I don’t agree with the writer, actually akki takes his movies more seriously than his contemporaries that’s why he relentlessly does 4-5 movies a year , he is not doing what salman used to do earlier (do movies more like a favour for his friends rather than like his profession and that too with very less or no remuneration at all ).
    charging as much as khans for his every movie & being the most fittest star among all , akki has never shied away from revealing the fact that movies mean business to him, there’s nothing wrong in that , even in his most successful year 2007 he had 4 releases but since they were better films they became hits , so the main problem is more to do with his choice of movies rather than his over exposure, yes over-exposure certainly has some impact but if he keeps giving good movies like baby, holiday, special 26 & RR in one single year rather than in 4 different years with many craps in between them then his stardom, trust & credibility will be intact, even if he gives 3 good movies a year & one average movie , it would do a world of good to his stardom, all his 4 movies in an year may not collect 150+ crores each (unless all are exceptionally good ) but all his 4 movies can earn 100+ crores if they are good , also since he rarely releases his movies during holidays his collections tend to be on the lower side but again its fair that the khans & hrithik get releases during major festivals as they are bigger superstars than akki & they hardly have 2 releases a year.

    Akki needs to do better movies, it doesn’t matter even if he does a dozen movies a year but if they are at least average then all will do good otherwise no point in aping the khans and trying to release1 or 2 movies a year and then those movies turn out to be like tmk or joker or k786 or entertainment etc!

  • akshay should think about what mistake he is doing what audience want. problem in a baby is
    no song
    no promotion
    different genre movie.

  • Emraan hashmi also needs to change his PR team. Pathetic decisions by them of delaying films is a big problem. Also less promotional events and media interaction by emraan’s PR team is affecting the most.

  • I don’t think this article has anything relevant according to me . He has been in the industry for 24 years so now we can’t tell him what should be done or not . Sometimes i also feel that he does crap movies but the point is when he does good movies they are appreciated become successful and are considered memorable films . Ex. OMG and Special 26 . Since 2010 which movie of Salman except for Dabangg was worth watching ? Baby is a brilliant movie . It is the best movie i have seen in recent years . This the best movie of Akshay Kumar according to me . Neeraj Pandey take a bow . You rock big time . Baby proves that currently you are the best director of Bollywood . Akki – Neeraj a really solid and deadly combo . @ Indicine I agree that the opening of Baby was below par but nobody was expecting a record breaking opening . Baby was not promoted at all, released on a non holiday period and is a thriller genre which does not appeal to masses . I also agree that Box Office is really important but money should not be the yardstick for everything . Because people always say Bollywood makes crap movies but when anything different and risky is done it should be appreciated . A Big Hug and Salute to # Team Baby – Neeraj, Akshay, Danny, Anupam, Taapsee, Rana, Rasheed Naz (Mohammad Rehman) and Kay Kay Menon . Happy Republic Day In Advance to everyone on Indicine . Happy Republic Day To You @ Indicine .

  • @king why not, a 2800 screens are sufficient to put up 15cr+ figure for any film.And Salman is south remake actor.ROFL to your comment.Yes wanted bring back to his stardom but Dabangg is the key film which was not a remake but a great entertainer. Akki highest grosser till date is RR also a south remake. After than akki had did nos of remakes boss,holiday,gabbar etc too.Salman also had ett at top for him before kick which wasn’t remake.
    Agree baby is not great like SPL 26 but still very good movie with a heart at right place.I would always prefer a baby over entertainment or RR.

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