When Akshay Kumar Denied Promoting His Own Film & Shah Rukh Khan Was Pulled In To Promote The Same After Even The Director Denied To Contribute [Reports]
Akshay Kumar and the director did not promote their own film after a creative fall-out. Shah Rukh Khan saved the day!
When Akshay Kumar Reportedly Denied To Promote His Own Film & Shah Rukh Khan Did The ‘Needful’ ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
Advertisement
Akshay Kumar is one of the few stars who never shies away from calling a spade a spade! He does so even to his closest ones and swears by his rules and regulations. Be it his working time schedules or fee structure, Akshay does not bend his way for anyone. If you need proof you can go through this story when he walked away from his own film after getting miffed with the director Shirish Kunder.
Shirish, Farah Khan’s husband, directed Joker which had the Oh My God 2 actor and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead. The film was a box office disaster and Akshay might have seen it coming his way since he outrightly refused to promote the flick which was released in 2012.
If reports are to be believed, Akshay Kumar distanced himself from the film after he had creative differences with Shirish Kunder. However, when Akshay unceremoniously dumped his own film, it raised a lot of eyebrows raised and Shirish’s wife, Farah Khan, came to her husband’s rescue, saying it was a strategy they adopted. In a report by India Today, Farah Khan said, “We have just seen a lot of them doing ‘Rowdy Rathore’ promotion. We didn’t want our film to look the same. It’s a very different film, it’s a kids-friendly film. Our USP are the aliens and we want to play upon that.”
However, the story behind Khiladi Kumar’s absence resulted from a clash of egos. As quoted from a 2012 report in Filmfare, “Akshay reportedly suggested some changes in the film. And Shirish rudely ticked the actor off. Akshay was apparently offended, but he chose to keep quiet. Then UTV approached Akshay because they wanted Joker to be postponed. Their Barfi! Was slated to release on the same day and they didn’t want to clash with Joker. Akshay too wanted his Oh My God! to be released before Joker. So we hear that Akshay and UTV head honchos went to meet Shirish Kunder to request him to shift the release date of his movie. Much to their shock, Shirish not only refused to shift the date he apparently was quite curt with his guests. And that’s what reportedly hurt Akshay.”
However, Farah Khan tried every bit possible to save the film as much as she could. Though deep down inside, she must have known that this ship is already sinking. Still, she struggled, in fact, tricked is the word – She tricked Shah Rukh Khan to promote Joker a little bit. While Shirish Kunder himself did not care to promote Joker when Akshay stepped out, Farah tried and talked to SRK about it when they were discussing Happy New Year.
Maybe Shah Rukh Khan was in a good mood or he was so close to Farah that could not see her in stress. He agreed to promote the film. Farah sent three aliens to Mannat, and a video was shot with Shah Rukh Khan meeting the aliens. Later Masala quoted Farah Khan, “Shah Rukh is family and it was sweet of him to take some time out for ‘Joker'”.
However, it was reported that Farah Khan taking help from Shah Rukh Khan miffed her husband Shirish Kunder and that was the reason he left his own film to its fate! Well, so much so for bruised ego we guess!
