Akshay Kumar in 2009
At the start of the year it seemed Akshay Kumar is all set to make 2009 his own at the box office. Akki, who was riding high on the success of ‘ Singh is Kinng’, was having much hyped films to be released all throughout the year. But as the year is half over, things are not going as expected for Akshay.
Akshay’s first release of 2009, Nikhil Advani’s ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ was expected to set the theatres on fire . But for all the pre-release hype that surrounded the film, it became a disaster at the box office. Then Akki experimented with Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘8X10 Tasveer’, but this film managed only to be a critical and commercial failure.
Two unexpected failures and the critics started slamming Akshay from all corners. All eyes were on his next release ‘Kambakkht Ishq’, the much hyped international love story with all those big names from Hollywood appearing in cameos. The makers of the film promoted it as an out and out entertainer with Akki branded action and humour on a lavish scale.
The opening of ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ once again confirmed Akshay’s ability to be a crowd puller but ‘Kambakkht Ishq’ has managed only to get mixed to negative reviews and the word-of-mouth is also poor. Will this film survive or not, we will have to wait and see.
So far all his releases this year could not live upto the expectations. Let’s take a look at Akki’s forthcoming releases this year. His confirmed upcoming films in 2009 are ‘Blue’ and ‘De Dana Dan’.
‘Blue’, from debutant Anthony D’Souza, is one of the most anticipated movies of 2009. This film brings Akshay back to his forte, action. ‘Blue’ with all those hyped underwater fight scenes could well be the first blockbuster for Akshay this year.
Akshay joins his favorite director Priyadarshan in ‘De Dana Dan’. This will be another comedy flick from Akki-Priyan duo and could bring smiles back on the face of Akshay fans.
Also there is ‘Action Replay’ with Vipul Shah, though not confirmed could be a late 2009 release.
With all these big films gearing up for release, Akshay Kumar could make the latter half of 2009 his own at the box office.